■ 


LIBRIS  POLARIS 

BASSETT  JONES 


ColuniWa  ©nitjf  rsitp 

inttifCitpofUrtogflrk 

THE  LIBRARIES 


By 
JOHN  R.  SPEARS 


The  Stories  of  American  History 

Story  of  the  New  England  Whalers 

Story  of  the  American  Merchant 
Marine 


Captain   Nathaniel   Brown   Palmer. 
Born  August  8,   1799.     Died  June  21,   1877. 


Captain 
Nathaniel  Brown    Palmer 

An  Old-Time  Sailor  of  the  Sea 


BY 

JOHN  R.  SPEARS 


THE  MACMILLAN  "COMPANY 
1922 

All  rights  reserved 


PRINTED  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA 


Copyright,   1922, 
By  the  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 


Set  up  and  printed.      Published  March,    1922. 


Press  of 

J.  J.  Little  &  Ives  Company 

New  York,  U.  S.  A. 


cr; 


PREFACE 

While  employed  as  a  reporter  on  The  Sun,  of 
New  York,  thirty  odd  years  ago,  the  writer  saw 
in  the  January,  1884,  issue  of  Harper^ s  Magazine, 
an  illustrated  account  of  "The  Old  Packet  and  Clip- 
per Service."  Records  of  swift  passages,  hero  tales 
and  statements  of  vast  profits  were  mingled  in  it  in 
a  way  that  proved  memorable.  In  fact,  the  whole 
story  was  so  interesting  that  the  magazine  was  pre- 
served and  became  the  first  item  in  a  collection  of 
books  relating  to  the  sea. 

Naturally  this  collection  came  to  resemble  the 
original  article  in  that  the  most  important  feature 
was  bibliographical;  it  came  to  demonstrate  that  a 
history  of  the  sea,  at  least,  is  a  series  of  biographies. 
Naturally,  too,  the  records  of  some  of  the  more 
active  of  the  old  master  mariners  were  duplicated, 
more  or  less,  in  the  various  accounts — their  work 
had  attracted  the  attention  of  more  than  one  writer. 
Accordingly,  as  the  collection  was  read  and  reread, 
the  names  of  certain  captains  became  more  and  more 
familiar  to  the  reader  and  then  a  time  came  when 
the  name  of  one  old  captain  came  to  mind  whenever 
any  true  story  of  the  sea  was  read. 

A  few  quotations  from  some  of  the  sketches  will 


vi  Preface 

show  how  this  came  to  pass :  In  the  original  account 
it  was  noted  that  when  ships  were  named,  during 
the  clipper  era,  "the  custom  was  to  use  the  names 
of  distinguished  merchants  or  captains — the  Houqua, 
the  Samuel  Russell,  the  N,  B.  Palmer,'*  A  copy  of 
the  North  American  Review ^  published  in  1834, 
told  how  a  Yankee  sailor,  in  a  sloop  "but  little  rising 
forty  tons,"  had  discovered  lands  of  continental 
proportions  near  the  Antarctic  Pole  and  had  ex- 
plored the  coast  for  many  miles  in  spite  of  the  hurri- 
cane squalls  that  prevail  in  that  region  and  in  spite 
of  the  ice  floes  which  mill  around  and  crash  together 
there  under  the  influence  of  currents  as  well  as  winds. 
The  name  of  this  young  man  was  Nathaniel  Brown 
Palmer,  and  the  story  quoted  said  that  a  Russian 
naval  officer  had  named  the  coast  thus  explored 
Palmer  Land.  It  appeared  that  the  young  explorer 
thus  distinguished  was  the  distinguished  merchant 
or  captain  for  whom  a  ship  had  been  named  later. 
A  clipping  from  a  Liverpool  newspaper  described 
briefly  a  race  between  twelve  American  packets  and 
freighters  plying  between  New  York  and  Liverpool. 
The  winner  in  this  race  was  the  W ashington,  Cap- 
tain Holdredge.  He  arrived  in  seventeen  days.  The 
third  in  the  race  was  the  Columbus,  Captain  Palmer, 
who  arrived  a  day  later.  The  Nautical  Magazine^ 
(Volume  II),  which  was  edited  by  John  Willis 
Griffiths,  a  noted  naval  architect,  made  mention  of 
Captain  N.  B.  Palmer  several  times  during  1855, 
and  on  one  occasion  coupled  his  name  with  that  of 


Preface  vii 

William  H.  Aspinwall,  saying  that  the  two  were  the 
originators  of  "the  late  clipper  era." 

The  impression  made  by  these  references  was 
deepened  by  further  reading.  There  were  many 
notable  men  in  the  service  of  the  American  merchant 
marine  during  the  period  between  the  War  of  1812 
and  the  Civil  War,  but,  as  the  records  indicated, 
Captain  Palmer  as  an  explorer,  as  a  master  mariner, 
and,  more  important  still,  as  a  designer  of  famous 
clippers,  was  preeminent.  So  a  time  came  when 
the  writer  decided  to  secure,  if  possible,  the  facts 
at  least  sufficient  for  a  biographical  sketch,  and  if 
possible  for  a  fairly  complete  biography. 

It  is  a  pleasure  to  acknowledge  that  In  the  work 
then  begun  the  most  cordial  aid  was  received  from 
Mrs.  Richard  Fanning  Loper,  of  Stonlngton,  Con- 
necticut, a  niece  of  Captain  Palmer.  The  captain  had 
lived  with  Captain  Alexander  Palmer,  her  father, 
for  several  years  and  such  of  his  papers  as  remained 
were  left  in  Mrs.  Loper's  possession.  The  old 
Palmer  mansion  at  Stonlngton — a  picturesque,  shin- 
gle-covered structure  that  stood  on  the  west  side 
of  town  at  a  point  overlooking  the  Sound  and  the 
sea — was  burned  on  November  15,  1850,  when  many 
documents  such  as  log  books  and  letters  were  de- 
stroyed, but  some,  including  the  log  of  the  little  sloop 
Hero,  kept  during  the  memorable  voyage  to  the 
Antarctic  Continent,  were  saved.  All  the  materials 
in  Mrs.  Loper's  possession,  together  with  notes  made 
from  memory  by  her  father,  by  herself  and  others 


viii  Preface 

have  all  been  used  In  preparing  this  biography.  But 
for  the  unwearied  aid  of  Mrs.  Loper  it  could  not 
have  been  written. 

As  for  the  facts  obtained  from  contemporary 
periodicals  and  documents,  credit  is  given  where 
quotations  are  made.  It  should  also  be  said,  how- 
ever, that  many  statements  relating  to  the  clippers 
which  were  designed  by  Captain  Palmer,  as  well  as 
by  others,  are  taken  from  the  "The  Clipper  Ship 
Era,"  by  Captain  Arthur  H.  Clark,  a  work  which 
gives  a  history  of  all  the  clippers.  Including  the 
British,  which  attracted  public  attention  during  the 
period.  Captain  Clark  is  "one  of  the  last  of  the  cap- 
tains of  the  old  school,"  to  quote  a  biographical 
sketch  In  "Some  Merchants  and  Sea  Captains  of 
Old  Boston."  He  wrote  his  history  in  part  from 
personal  knowledge  but  chiefly  from  authentic  docu- 
ments, such  as  the  log  books  of  the  ships,  which  he 
gathered  during  the  many  years  when  he  was  the 
New  York  representative  of  Lloyd's  Register  of 
Shipping. 

The  writer  must  also  acknowledge  that  material 
help  was  received  from  Dr.  James  H.  Weeks,  of 
Stonlngton;  Frederick  William  Edgerton,  of  the 
Public  Library,  New  London;  H.  M.  Lydenberg, 
of  the  New  York  Public  Library;  the  librarian  of  the 
Boston  Public  Library;  Captain  W.  C.  Asserson, 
U.  S.  N.,  Acting  Hydrographer,  Washington; 
Homer  Sheridan,  managing  editor,  of  the  Marine 
Journal,  New  York;  Kenneth  Lord,  city  editor  of 


Preface  ix 

the  New  York  Herald;  A.  J.  Aubrey,  of  the  Brook- 
lyn Eagle;  S.  Davles,  Secretary  of  Lloyd's  Register 
of  Shipping;  J.  Murray  Forbes,  Milton,  Mass.,  and 
Allan  Forbes,  of  the  State  Street  Trust  Co.,  Boston. 

J.  R.  S. 

Little  Falls,  N.  Y.,  September  14,  1921. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I     Trained  in  a  Shipyard i 

II    A  Captain  at  Eighteen 14 

III  Learning   the    Course   to   the    South 

Shetlands 23 

IV  Master  of  a  Tiny  Tender 42 

V    Cruising  Among  the  South  Shetlands  51 

VI    Exploring  the  Antarctic  Coast  ...  64 

VII     European  Explorers  Among  the  Shet- 
lands        76 

VIII     Superior  Work  of  the  Stonington  Men  87 

IX     Exploring     with     the     Sloop     "James 

Monroe" 92 

X    Carrying  Supplies  to  Bolivar      ...  99 

XI    Another   Memorable   Exploring   Expe- 
dition         Ill 

XII    Captured    by   Convicts   on   Juan    Fer- 
nandez       130 

XIII  The  Yankee  Packets 141 

XIV  Commodore  of  the  Dramatic  Line  .      .  154 

XV    Record  Passage  from  Liverpool  to  New 

York 164 

XVI    The  First  Yankee  Clipper   .     .     .     .  168 

xi 


xii  Contents 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

XVII    The  Griffiths  Clippers 183 

XVIII  The  Captain  and  His  Fleet  .      .      .      .  191 

XIX  Good  Qualities  of  the  Clippers  Con- 
sidered        222 

XX  The  ''Great  Republic"  Rebuilt      .      .  236 

XXI     Hail  and  Farewell 243 


CAPTAIN 
NATHANIEL  BROWN  PALMER 

An  Old-Time  Sailor  of  the  Sea 


Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 


CHAPTER  I 

TRAINED  IN  A   SHIPYARD 

CAPTAIN  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer  was 
born  In  the  old  family  home  at  Stonlngton 
on  August  8,  1799.  He  was  one  among 
eight  children — four  boys  and  four  girls.  On  his 
father's  side  he  was  descended  from  Walter  Palmer 
who  settled  at  Salem,  Mass.,  in  1629,  while  his 
mother  was  of  the  Brown  family  of  Rhode  Island. 
His  father,  who  also  bore  the  name  of  Nathaniel 
Brown  Palmer,  was  educated  to  practice  law,  but  he 
preferred  to  hear  the  rasp  of  the  pit  saw  and  the 
crisp  chip  of  the  adz,  rather  than  the  dull  drone  of 
the  court  room,  and  so  he  made  shipbuilding  his 
life  work. 

Because  building  ships  was  the  work  of  the  father, 
young  Nat,  as  the  boy  born  in  1799  was  called  to 
distinguish  him  from  his  father,  had  a  shipyard 
for  a  playground  from  the  time  he  was  old  enough 
to  run  around  without  the  care  of  a  nurse.  Stonlng- 
ton, In  those  days,  was  a  thriving  seaport  of  about 

I 


2  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

5,000  Inhabitants,  standing  at  the  mouth  of  Long 
Island  Sound.  When  storms  prevailed  to  eastward 
the  coasters  bound  around  Point  Judith  and  so  on 
to  Providence  or  Boston  or  Portland,  were  In  the 
habit  of  entering  the  harbor  of  Stonlngton  to  await 
pleasant  weather.  Then  vessels  that  met  misfortune 
when  rounding  Point  Judith  or  Block  Island,  icund 
the  Palmer  shipyard  a  convenient  place  for  making 
repairs.  The  coasters  brought  many  a  tidy  repair 
job  to  the  Palmer  shipyard. 

In  the  matter  of  building  new  ships,  the  yard  was 
favored  by  the  fact  that  Connecticut  oak  stood  higher 
in  the  estimation  of  ship  owners  than  any  except 
the  live  oak  of  Hatteras  Island  and  the  coast  of 
Florida.  Of  course  the  final  test  of  popularity  of 
the  yard  depended  on  the  quality  of  the  work  done, 
and  the  proof  that  the  quality  was  of  the  highest  is 
found  in  the  fact  that  many  vessels  of  all  classes 
were  built  there.  However,  because  the  channel 
leading  into  the  harbor  carried  only  twelve  feet  of 
water  the  chief  demand  at  the  Palmer  yard  was  for 
brigs,  schooners,  and  sloops. 

As  said,  from  the  time  that  young  Nat  was  able 
to  navigate  the  sea  of  chips  he  went  to  his  father's 
yard  to  play;  and  so  he  began  to  absorb  a  knowledge 
of  hulls  and  spars  before  he  went  to  school  to  learn 
his  letters.  He  stood  by  while  the  workmen 
stretched  keels  on  the  blocks  and  erected  the  ribs; 
and  he  listened  to  what  they  said  about  the  models 
of  the  hulls  thus  begun.     He  looked  on  with  un- 


Trained  in  a  Shipyard  3 

falling  interest  while  other  workmen,  with  endless 
chipping,  shaped  long  logs  of  various  diameters 
into  masts  and  yards  and  booms  and  gaffs,  discuss- 
ing, the  while,  the  merits  of  the  sticks  they  worked 
upon  and  the  general  dimensions  of  spars  when 
compared  with  the  sizes  and  shapes  of  the  hulls 
for  which  they  were  designed.  He  learned  what 
was  meant  when  they  said  a  vessel  was  over-sparred 
before  he  learned  to  work  the  rule  of  three. 

His  admiration  was  excited  early  by  the  men 
who  could  rest  one  end  of  a  slender  stick  on  a  rock 
and  then  with  a  keen-edged  ax  slice  shaving  after 
shaving  down  to  within  an  inch  of  the  rock  until 
he  made  of  the  stick  a  treenail,  that  was  either  round 
or  eight-square,  and  of  the  exact  diameter  to  drive 
into  its  destined  augur  hole — all  this  without  ever 
a  slip  that  would  endanger  the  edge  on  the  ax. 
And  then  there  was  the  man  who  could  swing  an 
ax  in  an  overhead  blow  and  split  a  chalk  line  three 
times  in  succession.  Young  Nat  dreamed  of  the  day 
when  he,  too,  should  be  able  to  do  that  as  well  as 
any  one. 

The  shipbuilders  of  that  day — the  carpenters, 
the  spar  makers,  the  riggers,  and  so  on — were  proud 
of  their  skill.  There  was  a  friendly  rivalry  between 
them  in  the  yard,  each  striving  to  outdo  the  others, 
not  through  any  craven  fear  of  the  ''old  man,"  as 
the  owner  was  called,  but  for  the  love  of  the  dis- 
tinguished consideration  which  skill  brought  to  men 
who  excelled.     So  the  shipyard  was  more  than  a 


4  Captain  Nathaniel  Brotvn  Palmer 

playground  for  the  towsle-headed  youngster ;  it  was 
a  good  school  of  the  kindergarten  variety.  It  was 
one  of  many  which  then  gave  character  to  the  small, 
growing  and  somewhat  towsle-brained  nation. 

When  a  vessel  was  launched,  and  the  people  of 
the  borough  and  the  country  round  about  came  to 
cheer  her  on  her  way,  young  Nat  was  one  of  the 
privileged  few  who  mounted  the  deck  to  ride  down 
the  ways.  The  click  of  the  mauls  as  the  iron  wedges 
were  driven  into  the  keelblocks;  the  settling  of  the 
hull  on  the  cradle  as  the  blocks  dropped  to  pieces; 
the  final  blow  that  released  the  trigger  and  let  the 
hull  slide  down  the  ways,  all  thrilled  the  boy  more 
than  the  men  and  women  who  cheered  the  event  most 
cordially. 

Even  that  was  not  all.  For  while  the  hull  was 
yet  on  the  ways  the  workmen  and  other  spectators 
talked  about  the  poise  the  hull  should  have  after 
going  afloat.  Hulls  were  designed  wholly  by  rule 
o'  thumb,  in  those  days,  and  sometimes  a  ship  was 
down  by  the  bows  when  the  designer  had  expected 
her  to  be  down  by  the  stern.  And  sometimes  a  hull 
showed  a  list  to  one  side  or  the  other.  The  boy 
listened  while  the  workmen  as  well  as  the  unhappy 
designer  told  just  how  such  a  hull  happened  to  go 
wrong. 

Most  important  in  the  education  of  young  Nat 
were  these  shipyard  experiences;  for  they  created 
or  at  any  rate  cultivated  the  bent  of  mind  which 
eventually  led  him  to  design  the  ships  of  the  Dra- 


Trained  in  a  Shipyard  5 

matlc  Line  of  Liverpool  packets  and  the  stately  clip- 
pers Howqua,  Samuel  Russell,  Oriental,  and  others 
which  were  most  efficient  and  most  famous  in  the 
China  trade. 

That  this  boy  learned  to  swim  about  as  soon  as 
he  learned  to  walk  was  according  to  the  custom  of 
alongshore  New  England  boys.  One  old  account 
says  that  when  a  gang  of  youngsters  went  to  the 
swimming  hole,  it  frequently  happened  that  boys 
who  had  not  yet  learned  to  swim  jumped  in,  deter- 
mined to  learn  how,  then  and  there — or  get  saved 
by  some  of  the  older  ones  present.  Of  course,  too, 
the  boy  learned  to  handle  a  sailboat  at  the  age  when 
farm  boys  learned  to  ride  a  horse.  For  the  boys 
of  Stonlngton,  a  sail  to  the  Middle  Ground  was  a 
matter  of  no  moment;  but  to  reach  away  to  Ram 
Island  or  the  eastern  end  of  Fisher's  Island  was  an 
adventure,  while  sailing  to  New  London  or  to 
Gardiner's  Island  was  a  voyage. 

Consider  now  the  influence  of  the  stories  told  by 
the  sailors  from  the  vessels  which  came  to  the 
Palmer  yard  for  repairs.  Those  were  the  good  old 
days  of  Jeffersonlan  simplicity  when  the  American 
people  preferred  paying  tribute  to  the  pirates  of 
the  north  coast  of  Africa  to  fighting  for  freedom 
to  sail  their  ships  across  the  high  seas — when  they 
paid  millions  of  tribute  In  the  shape  of  coin,  armed 
ships  and  naval  stores  to  black  pirates.  No  doubt 
seamen  who  had  been  in  the  Mediterranean  came 
to  Stonlngton  and  related  their  experiences  on  the 


6  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

African  coast.  Many — perhaps  most — of  them  had 
been  In  the  West  Indies  during  the  days  when  French 
and  Spanish  piratical  privateers  were  raiding  Ameri- 
can commerce,  and  these  had  tales  of  narrow  escapes 
and  of  prison  experiences  to  tell.  Of  the  stories  of 
shipwreck  there  was,  of  course,  no  end.  The  very 
presence  of  the  vessels  seeking  repairs  was  usually 
due  to  some  sort  of  disaster.  In  short,  the  common 
conversation  of  Stonlngton  related  to  the  sea  just 
as  people  in  the  blue  grass  of  Kentucky  talk  about 
the  pedigrees  of  horses. 

More  important  still,  perhaps,  In  shaping  the  early 
career  of  this  young  sailor-in-the-making,  were  the 
oft-told  stories  of  the  neighbors  who  had  sailed  with 
Captain  Edmund  Fanning  in  the  brig  Betsey ^  when, 
in  1 797-1 799,  she  went  to  the  Falklands  for  fur 
seals;  rounded  the  Horn  and  stopped  at  Mas-a-fuera 
off  the  coast  of  Chili  for  more,  and  then  sailed  on  to 
Canton  with  100,000  skins.  That  was  a  wonderfully 
profitable  voyage  for  all  hands  on  the  ship,  and 
they  had  sailed  around  the  world.  Moreover  some 
of  them  remained  on  Mas-a-fuera  to  take  skins  for 
the  Betsey  for  another  voyage  to  follow  the  first. 
No  sailors  from  Stonlngton  had  more  exciting  ad- 
venture tales  to  tell  than  these  had. 

From  the  sunlit  waters  of  the  Caribbean  to  the 
ice  fields  of  the  far  south,  from  New  York  around 
Cape  Horn  to  Canton  and  China,  the  sailors  of 
Stonlngton  had  seen  many  a  strange  sight  of  which 
they  were  ready  to  talk  to  the  wondering  boys  at 


Trained  in  a  Shipyard  'J 

home.  So  the  winds  that  came  unimpeded  from  be- 
yond the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  to  the  Palmer  ship- 
yard at  Stonlngton  called  with  a  siren's  voice  to 
young  Nat  as  he  played  among  the  chips. 

Of  the  political  conditions  prevailing  In  the  nation 
during  his  boyhood  young  Nat  no  doubt  knew  much. 
When  an  embargo  was  laid  on  American  shipping 
in  an  effort  to  compel  the  warring  nations  of  Europe 
to  deal  justly  with  this  country,  the  vigor  with  which 
the  people  of  the  town  denounced  the  absurd  meas- 
ure was  certainly  in  part  understood  by  the  boy  of 
ten — perhaps  fully  understood.  He  appreciated  the 
effects  of  the  measure  beyond  a  doubt  when  he  saw 
the  dismantling  of  ships  in  the  harbor.  And  when 
on  June  i8,  1812,  war  was  declared,  he  was  old 
enough  to  share  In  the  excitement  that  prevailed  all 
alongshore. 

That  the  interest  of  the  boy  In  that  war  increased 
with  the  passage  of  time  is  also  beyond  doubt,  for 
Stonlngton  occupied  a  notable  position. 

The  borough  stood  on  a  point  of  land,  called 
Long  Point,  opposite  the  east  end  of  Fisher's  Island, 
and  therefore  faced  the  open  sea  as  well  as  the  east 
end  of  Long  Island  Sound.  The  anchorage  of  that 
day  was  a  roadstead  rather  than  a  harbor  and  In 
later  years  breakwaters  were  built  to  shelter  the 
shipping  of  the  port.  Nevertheless  It  was  frequently 
used  by  the  coasting  vessels  as  already  noted — espe- 
cially during  northeast  storms.  When  the  War  of 
1 8 12  came  on  it  was  popular  for  another  reason.    It 


8  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

became  a  resort  for  blockade  runners.  For  the 
enemy  sent  a  war  squadron  under  Commodore  Sir 
Thomas  M.  Hardy  (he  had  been  the  favorite  cap- 
tain of  Admiral  Nelson) ,  to  blockade  the  east  end  of 
Long  Island  Sound.  These  ships  reached  to  and  fro 
between  Montauk  Point  and  Point  Judith  where 
they  were  nearly  always  within  view  of  Stonington. 

In  foul  weather  the  crews  of  the  squadron  were  es- 
pecially vigilant  but  they  were  never  able  to  stop  the 
coasting  traffic  of  the  Yankees.  Indeed  the  blockade 
did  but  give  zest  to  the  traffic,  for  the  danger  added 
greatly  to  the  profits  of  each  successful  passage. 
Thus  at  New  York  where  the  grain  of  the  Hudson 
watershed  could  be  obtained,  the  price  of  flour  was 
but  $7  a  barrel.  At  Boston,  where  the  people  had 
been  accustomed  to  depend  on  New  York  for  their 
supplies,  the  price  quickly  rose  to  $14.  Captain 
Jacob  Dunham,  in  his  reminiscences,  tells  how  he 
bought  the  sloop  Rover  for  $500,  loaded  her  with 
500  barrels  of  flour  which  he  carried  through  the 
blockade  to  eastern  ports  and  sold  for  $4,000  net 
profit.  Some  one  ought  to  write  a  book  on  "Profits 
and  Progress,"  for  it  can  be  easily  demonstrated 
that  high  profits  create  swift  progress. 

The  profits  in  blockade  running  were  a  perpetual 
call  to  the  daring  seamen  of  the  coast,  and  nowhere 
was  the  call  louder  than  at  Stonington.  For  the 
usual  route  of  the  coaster  was  through  Fisher's  Is- 
land Sound  and  so  within  easy  reach  of  the  Stoning- 
ton anchorage.     When  fog  and  wind  favored  her 


Trained  in  a  Shipyard  9 

the  coaster  held  her  way;  when  clearing  weather 
seemed  coming  on,  or  when  daylight  was  at  hand, 
the  coaster  dropped  anchor  near  the  borough.  Cap- 
tain Dunham  says  that  blockade  runners  could  be 
seen  at  anchor  there  at  all  times  when  the  weather 
was  fair.  The  people — more  especially  the  boys 
of  Stonington — had  the  daring  crews  of  these  vessels 
always  in  mind. 

Moreover  they  saw  the  coasters  when  In  deadly 
peril.  Many  a  time  the  fog  cleared  away  unexpect- 
edly while  a  sloop  or  a  schooner  was  passing  Point 
Judith  or  was  under  Watch  Hill,  and  the  nearest 
warship  of  the  enemy  came  In  hot  pursuit.  Every 
sail  was  spread  on  pursuer  and  pursued  and  then 
the  guns  on  the  warship  began  to  roar.  Many  an 
Interesting  yacht  race  has  been  seen  from  Stoning- 
ton, but  consider  how  the  excitement  grew  as  the 
Pactolus  frigate,  or  the  sloop  Despatch,  fired  shot 
that  knocked  the  spray  over  the  rail  of  the  hunted 
coaster  and  even  carried  away  the  tophamper.  And 
when  the  crew  of  the  coaster  were  seen  at  work 
wetting  down  their  sails  to  Increase  her  speed  we 
may  well  believe  that  the  spectators  fairly  shrieked 
their  approval. 

Sometimes  the  flying  Yankee  held  her  way  In 
spite  of  Injuries  and  came  fluttering  Into  port  like  a 
wounded  wild  fowl.  Sometimes  the  crew  of  a  cap- 
tured coaster  rose  on  the  prize  crew  and  retook  her 
as  was  the  luck  of  the  crew  of  the  Natina,  Captain 
Stewart. 


10  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

The  boys  of  Stonington  knew  the  coasters  as  well 
as  a  landsman  knows  the  houses  of  his  home  town. 
They  were  personally  acquainted  with  many  mem- 
bers of  the  crews.  Indeed,  there  were  Stonington 
men  and  boys  on  many  of  the  blockade  runners. 
When  one  of  these  little  vessels  dropped  anchor  off 
the  point  it  was  the  custom  for  some  of  the  crew 
to  come  ashore,  where  they  told  in  the  picturesque 
language  of  the  sea  how  they  had  managed  to  escape 
the  enemy — told  the  story  to  listeners  who  became 
wellnigh  breathless  because  of  their  intense  interest. 

But  .war  was  to  come  still  closer  to  the  people  of 
Stonington.  The  borough  had  been  bombarded, 
though  all  in  vain,  during  the  War  of  the  Revolu- 
tion. On  August  9,  1 8 14,  Commodore  Hardy  came 
to  bombard  it  again  because  he  had  heard  that  the 
Stoningtonians  were  building  torpedoes  with  which 
to  attack  his  squadron.  As  the  story  is  told  in  H.  D. 
Palmer's  "Stonington  by  the  Sea,"  the  74-gun  liner 
Ramilies,  the  44-gun  frigate  Pactolus,  the  22-gun 
brig  Despatch  and  the  bomb  brig  Terror  reached 
in  to  anchor  at  a  point  where  their  guns  would  bear. 
Then  a  boat  brought  ashore  a  message  which  read: 

"Not  wishing  to  destroy  the  unoffending  inhabi- 
tants of  Stonington,  one  hour  is  given  them  from  the 
receipt  of  this  to  remove  out  of  town." 

The  non-combatants  left  the  town;  the  men 
loaded  two  old-fashioned  i8-pounders,  which  were 
standing  in  a  small  earthwork  on  the  point.  They 
had  at  hand  a  4-pounder  but  it  was  not  loaded  then. 


Trained  in  a  Shipyard  II 

They  had  two  guns  with  which  to  reply  to  four  ships 
which  together  mounted  140  effective  cannon  besides 
an  unknown  number  of  mortars  on  the  Terror,  some 
of  the  shells  from  which  weighed  more  than  200 
pounds.  In  the  history  of  war  there  are  few  stories 
of  men  who  faced  greater  odds  than  that. 

At  8  o'clock  that  night  the  Terror  began  shelling 
the  town.  The  crews  of  the  two  i8-pounders — 
sailors,  no  doubt,  who  had  faced  the  perils  of  the 
sea  ever  since  the  previous  war — returned  the  fire. 
And  at  the  first  shot  they  fired  they  demonstrated 
that  the  odds  were  in  their  favor!  For  their  shot 
struck  home.  They  knew  how  to  aim  their  guns 
while  the  enemy  fired  with  enthusiasm  and  nothing 
better  to  direct  their  shells. 

Seeing  that  his  fire  was  Ineffective  while  that  of 
the  two  1 8-pounders  were  sinking  the  T error ^  Com- 
modore Hardy  at  9  o'clock,  sent  six  or  seven  huge 
rowboats  to  a  position  from  which  they  could  shower 
the  town  with  Congreve  rockets,  a  weapon  then 
supposed  to  be  especially  efficient  in  firing  wooden 
houses.  A  few  houses  were  thus  set  on  fire  but  the 
Stoningtonians  extinguished  the  flames.  The  fire 
of  shot  which  was  meantime  directed  on  the  two 
1 8-pounders  eventually  cut  the  old  ''gridiron  flag" 
from  its  staff  in  the  little  earthwork,  but  a  big 
gunner  stepped  to  the  flagstaff  where  another  man, 
flag  in  hand,  mounted  his  shoulders  and  nailed  it  to 
the  staff. 

At  midnight  Commodore  Hardy  acknowledged 


12  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

that  he  had  failed  thus  far — acknowledged  it  by 
sending  a  flotilla  of  longboats  to  effect  a  landing. 
Thereupon  the  Stoningtonians  brought  their  4- 
pounder  as  well  as  one  of  the  i8-pounders  to  bear 
on  these  boats. 

''We  tore  one  of  their  barges  all  to  pieces,"  wrote 
Captain  Amos  Palmer,  in  a  letter  to  the  Secretary 
of  the  Navy,  later,  "so  that  two,  one  on  each  side, 
had  to  lash  her  up  to  keep  her  from  sinking." 

At  that  the  flotilla  fled,  which  was  something 
British  sailors  have  rarely  done.  Then  the  fire  at 
the  warships  was  renewed.  The  bombardment  was 
continued,  off  and  on,  for  three  days.  In  that  time 
the  sloop  Despatch  alone  lost  21  killed  and  50 
wounded  from  the  fire  of  the  two  i8-pounders,  as 
was  learned  from  one  of  her  officers  after  the  war. 
The  loss  on  the  other  warships  was  never  told.  In 
Stonington  one  man  was  hurt — mortally  wounded. 
Not  a  house  was  destroyed.  The  people  picked  up 
fifteen  tons  of  projectiles  after  the  battle  ended. 
Some  of  them  are  yet  on  view.  So  is  the  tattered 
old  flag  which  floated  above  the  two  i8-pounders. 

It  was  among  such  neighbors  as  these  men  who 
would  fight  regardless  of  the  odds  that  young  Nat 
Palmer  was  born  and  reared.  Moreover  it  was  the 
proud  boast  of  the  people  there  that  one  of  them — 
Midshipman  Nathaniel  Fanning — had  fought  under 
John  Paul  Jones  on  the  Bon  Homme  Richard  and 
had  heard  the  memorable  words  "I  have  not  yet 


Trained  in  a  Shipyard  13 

begun  to  fight."     In  no  town  in  the  world  was  a 
higher  standard  of  manhood  maintained. 

But  whether  young  Nat  was  at  home  when  the 
borough  was  bombarded  is  doubtful  for  he  had, 
earlier  in  the  year,  shipped  as  a  boy  before  the  mast 
in  one  of  the  blockade  runners  which  plied  to  and 
fro  from  New  York  to  Portland,  regardless  of  the 
blockade. 


CHAPTER  II 

A  CAPTAIN  AT  EIGHTEEN 

THE  only  written  record  of  the  experiences 
of  young  Nat  Palmer  as  a  sailor  on  a  block- 
ade runner,  during  the  War  of  1812,  is  the 
statement  that  one  vessel  on  which  he  was  employed 
was  burned  in  the  harbor  at  New  Haven.  But  some 
of  the  conditions  under  which  he  made  his  way 
through  the  blockading  squadrons,  from  time  to 
time,  are  well  known,  and  may  be  described  here  in 
order  to  show  the  kind  of  life  he  led  and  its  effects 
upon  his  development  as  a  sailor  of  the  sail. 

First  of  all  it  may  be  noted  that  there  was  not 
a  lighthouse  in  commission  anywhere  along  shore. 
The  buoys  which  had  been  placed  here  and  there 
to  mark  the  reefs  and  shoals  had  all  been  removed 
at  the  opening  of  the  war,  lest  they  serve  to  guide  the 
enemy.  Sailing  along  the  American  coast  was  like 
sailing  on  some  newly-discovered  littoral,  save  only 
as  the  captain  of  each  American  vessel  knew  the 
lay  of  the  land,  and  could  locate  dangerous  water 
by  distant  marks  such  as  hills  and  houses,  which 
were  visible  in  clear  weather. 

In  making  a  passage,  as  from  New  York  to  Bos- 
ton, the  vessel  usually  had  clear  sailing  until  within 

14 


A  Captain  at  Eighteen  1 5 

sight  of  the  blockading  squadron,  say,  off  New  Lon- 
don. It  was  therefore  the  custom,  when  the  air  was 
clear,  to  sail  along  boldly  on  this  passage  as  far  as 
that  port  or  to  Huntington,  Long  Island,  and  then 
anchor  to  wait  for  fog  or  a  dark  night.  With  a  fog 
during  a  night  when  the  moon  was  not  shining  the 
captain  of  a  blockade  runner  felt  entirely  safe;  for 
all  the  captains  in  the  business  were  like  the  pilot  on 
the  Mississippi  of  whom  Mark  Twain  told — they 
knew  the  waters  through  which  they  were  to  steer 
as  well  as  they  knew  the  lay  of  the  rooms  in  their 
own  homes.  A  cast  of  the  lead  was  the  only  aid 
to  trained  instinct  needed  when  making  the  run. 

The  skill  of  the  crews  who  handled  these  vessels 
is  memorable;  for  it  was  something  marvelous  in 
the  eyes  of  foreigners.  Consider  the  sloops  that 
were  commonly  used.  Some  of  them  were  from  50 
to  75  feet  long.  The  masts  were  much  taller  than 
the  hulls  were  long  and  some  booms  were  five  feet 
longer  than  the  hulls.  A  75-foot  sloop  commonly 
had  a  mast  84  or  85  feet  tall  with  a  boom  that  was 
80  feet  long.  The  mainsail  was  comparable  with 
that  of  a  "giant"  defender  of  the  America's  cup, 
but  a  crew  of  six  men  handled  any  one  of  those 
sloops,  where  the  cup  racers  have  carried  from  thirty 
to  forty.  And  one  man  at  the  tiller  could  gibe  the 
main  boom  over  in  a  smart  breeze  without  bringing 
enough  strain  on  sheet  or  masthead  to  break  a  rope- 
yarn. 

The    young    apprentice    from    Stonington    was 


1 6  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

trained  to  handle  the  tiller  by  men  who  could  do  just 
that  well;  and  In  due  course  he  became  as  expert 
as  they  were.  In  fair  winds  and  foul;  in  gentle  airs 
and  in  roaring  gales,  he  had  to  stand  his  trick  at 
the  tiller,  noting  the  while  not  only  the  influence  of 
the  wind  but  the  influence  of  tidal  currents,  which 
were  sometimes  favorable  and  sometimes  adverse. 
More  important  still,  considering  the  work  he  was 
to  do  later,  he  had  to  do  all  this  at  night  and  when 
the  fog  was  so  thick  on  the  water  that  he  could  not 
see  the  jib  when  he  stood  at  the  tiller. 

It  was  said  of  the  blockade-running  skippers  that 
they  could  "smell  their  way  from  Hell  Gate  to 
Providence  with  their  eyes  shut" ;  and  that  was  not 
as  much  of  an  exaggeration  as  It  may  seem  to  mod- 
ern navigators  of  Long  Island  Sound. 

Throughout  the  War  of  1812  and  until  18 18 
young  Nat  sailed  upon  vessels  which  were  engaged 
in  trade  between  New  York  and  the  New  England 
ports.  He  thus  learned  the  arts  of  the  coasting  trade 
so  well  that  he  was  promoted  first  to  the  rank  of 
second  mate  and  then  mate.  Before  he  was  19  he 
became  master  of  a  schooner  named  Galena.  He 
had  maintained  the  reputation  of  his  home  port,  for 
Stoningtonians  made  boast  of  the  ability  of  their 
boys  to  secure  command  before  they  were  of  an  age 
to  vote. 

The  peculiar  skill  which  young  Nat  had  acquired 
while  working  his  way  aft — the  ability  to  navigate 
among  the  shoals  In  foul  weather  as  well  as  fair — 


A  Captain  at  Eighteen  17 

was  now  to  take  him  from  the  coasting  trade  to  a 
voyage  on  deep  water  and  yet  demote  him;  for  he 
was  invited  to  take  part  as  a  second  mate  in  an  ex- 
pedition, fitted  out  at  private  expense,  to  explore 
the  unknown  waters  below  Cape  Horn.  The  object 
in  view  was  the  location  of  islands  supposed  to  exist 
there,  which  were  known  to  tradition  as  the  Auroras, 
and  these  islands  were  supposed  to  be  the  summer 
home  of  vast  herds  of  fur  seals. 

Because  young  Nat  joined  in  this  expedition  and 
thus  became  a  noted  sealer,  a  brief  review  of  the 
seal  fishery  will  give  a  needed  focus  upon  that  period 
of  his  life.  According  to  a  history  issued  by  the 
U.  S.  Fish  Commission  '*a  Boston  lady  named 
Haley  *  was  led  to  bear  the  expense  of  fitting  out 
the  ship  States  for  a  voyage  to  the  Falkland  Islands 
for  hair  seal  skins  and  sea  elephant  oil,"  soon  after 
the  War  of  the  Revolution. 

Skins  of  the  hair  seal  were  then  used  raw  to 
cover  trunks.  They  were  also  tanned  for  various 
uses.  Sea  elephant  oil  sold  for  as  much  as  that  of 
the  right  whale.  The  States  returned  to  New  York 
with  a  full  cargo  of  hair  seal  skins  and  of  elephant 
oil,  together  with  13,000  skins  of  the  fur  seal,  which, 
says  the  record,  were  brought  "as  an  experiment." 

An  "experiment"  was  characteristic  of  the  Ameri- 
can sailors  of  the  day.  They  would  try  any  kind 
of  work  that  promised  a  large  profit.     This   ex- 

*  Sister  of  John  Wilkes,  a  member  of  Parliament,  who  became 
a  popular  hero  after  publishing  a  pamphlet  attacking  George  III 
(1763). 


1 8  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

perlment  had  a  far-reaching  effect.  When  the  furs 
arrived  in  New  York  nobody  knew  what  to  do 
with  them,  but  they  were  sold  for  50  cents  each 
to  a  buyer  who  supposed  that  at  worst  they  might 
be  tanned  as  were  those  of  the  hair  seal.  Then 
a  venturesome  merchant  bought  them  and  shipped 
them  to  Calcutta.  He  '^guessed"  they  were  the 
skins  of  sea  otters,  instead  of  seals,  and  he  had 
heard  that  sea  otter  skins  sold  for  more  than  $20 
each  in  Canton.  He  shipped  the  skins  to  Calcutta 
instead  of  Canton  because  he  "guessed"  one  Asi- 
atic port  would  prove  as  desirable  as  another, 
and  because  he  found  a  ship  ready  for  that  port 
while  none  was  ready  for  Canton.  He  learned  in 
time  that  no  one  in  Calcutta  would  buy  them,  but 
they  were  then  shipped  to  Canton  where  they  brought 
$5  each  or  $65,000  for  the  consignment. 

The  development  of  the  fur-seal  fishery  followed 
that  speculation.  Among  the  venturesome  mer- 
chants of  New  York,  in  those  days,  was  Elias  Nex- 
sen.  He  fitted  out  the  brig  Betsey  for  a  sealing 
voyage  in  1792.  The  mate  of  the  brig  was  a 
Stonington  boy  named  Edmund  Fanning  who,  about 
forty  years  later,  wrote  a  book  entitled  "Voyages 
Around  the  World,"  in  which  he  described  the  ad- 
ventures of  the  Betsey*s  crew  while  at  the  Falk- 
land Islands.  The  skins  taken  by  the  Betsey  were 
carried  to  New  York,  but  another  vessel,  the  Eliza, 
Captain  William  R.  Stewart,  which  took  38,000 
skins  at  Juan  Fernandez,  carried  them  to  Canton, 


A  Captain  at  Eighteen  19 

where  they  were  sold  for  only  50  cents  each.  The 
Chinese  market  had  been  depressed  by  the  number 
of  skins. 

In  1797  Mr.  Nexsen  fitted  out  the  Retsey  for 
another  sealing  voyage  with  Captain  Edmund  Fan- 
ning in  command.  The  Betsey  called  at  the  Falk- 
lands  and  Mas-a-fuera  and  then  carried  100,000 
skins  to  Canton.  Fannlng's  book  does  not  tell  the 
price  received  for  the  skins,  nor  the  gross  return 
from  the  China  goods  he  secured  In  exchange  for 
them,  but  It  says  that  the  net  profit  of  the  owners 
of  the  Betsey  amounted  to  $52,300.  The  Betsey 
measured  less  than  100  tons  and  was  probably  worth 
less  than  $3,000.  At  about  this  time  the  ship  Nep- 
tune, Captain  Daniel  Green,  of  New  Haven,  gath- 
ered 45,000  skins  at  the  Falklands  and  Juan 
Fernandez,  which  sold  for  $90,000  in  Canton.  The 
China  goods  then  purchased  sold  for  $260,000  in 
New  York  and  the  profits  were  so  large  that  the 
lay  of  the  forecastle  hands  amounted  to  $1,200  each. 

Thereafter  voyages  to  the  fur-seal  islands  were 
made  every  year,  among  which  only  one,  that  of 
Captain  Edmund  Fanning,  In  a  well-armed  ship 
named  Aspasia,  need  be  considered  here.  The  cap- 
tain sailed  in  1800  to  the  South  Georgia  islands 
where  he  secured  57,000  prime  furs  which  he  sold 
in  Canton  at  great  profit. 

Another  sealer  who  made  money  was  Captain 
Amasa  Delano,  who  wrote  a  book,  describing  his 
adventures,  which  was  Issued  in   18 17  and  had  a 


20  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

wide  circulation.  Meantime,  vessels  from  nearly 
all  the  American  whaling  ports  had  tried  the  seal 
fishery.  The  result  was  practical  extermination  of 
the  known  herds.  It  was  said  that  3,000,000  seals 
were  taken  from  Juan  Fernandez  alone.  The  scar- 
city of  seals  on  the  known  rookeries,  as  the  seal 
beaches  were,  and  are,  called,  caused  the  failure 
of  several  ventures  in  the  fishery  and  It  was  then 
that  the  exploring  expedition  in  search  of  the 
Auroras  was  planned. 

The  prime  mover  In  this  expedition  was  Captain 
Edmund  Fanning,  who  had  retired  from  the  sea. 
He  had  secured  copies  of  the  reports  of  various  early 
explorers,  among  which  was  that  of  Skipper  DIrck 
Gherrltz,  the  Dutchman  who  rounded  the  Horn 
in  1599.  Another  was  the  report  of  the  captain 
of  the  Spanish  corvette  Atrevida.  Both  of  these 
reports  mentioned  lands  seen  south  of  Cape  Horn. 

While  the  existence  of  these  lands  was  doubted 
by  most  geographers,  because  no  one  had  seen  them 
in  recent  times.  Captain  Fanning  believed  in  them. 
For  while  he  was  at  the  South  Georglas,  with  the 
Aspasia,  he  had  seen  immense  Icebergs  and  fields 
of  ice  sailing  with  the  southwest  gales,  which  pre- 
vailed most  of  the  time,  and  he  had  previously 
observed  that  such  masses  of  ice  were  formed  only 
in  connection  with  lands  of  considerable  extent. 
The  Ice  convinced  him  that  land  was  to  be  found 
"somewhere  between  the  latitudes  of  60°  and  65° 


A  Captain  at  Eighteen  21 

south  and  between  50°  and  60°  west"  (pp.  428- 
429,  'Tanning's  Voyages"). 

Because  the  captain  and  his  friends  had  already 
made  fortunes  in  just  such  ventures  they  were 
ready,  when  the  fishery  failed  in  18 17,  to  venture 
the  capital  needed  for  a  search  for  the  Auroras. 
For  this  purpose  they  selected  ''the  brig  Hersilia, 
a  fine  new  vessel,  coppered  and  fitted  in  the  best 
manner."  Captain  James  A.  Sheffield,  an  experi- 
enced and  successful  sealer,  was  placed  in  command. 
The  selecting  of  the  crew,  which  now  became  the 
duty  of  Captain  Sheffield,  is  worth  a  few  words  of 
explanation. 

The  Hersilia  was  to  sail  into  waters  that  were 
not  only  uncharted  but  they  had  not  been  visited, 
so  far  as  could  be  learned,  since  the  two  vessels 
mentioned  above  had  seen  the  lost  lands.  But  it 
was  very  well  known  that  the  whole  region  south 
of  the  Horn  was  lashed  and  torn  by  storms  of  snow 
and  sleet,  in  summer  as  well  as  winter,  and  that 
even  a  week  of  pleasant  weather  was  rarely  seen 
at  any  time  of  the  year.  Further,  during  the  sum- 
mer season,  when  the  Hersilia  was  to  arrive,  was  the 
time  when  the  ice  fields  of  the  region  broke  loose 
from  the  land  and  were  driven  before  the  all  but 
ceaseless  gales.  It  was  known,  too,  that  the  ice 
masses  around  which  the  gales  raged  were  shrouded 
in  the  blackest  of  fogs  and  blotted  from  view  by 
heavy  snow   squalls   for  many  days   at   a   stretch. 


22  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

Finally,  the  Islands,  If  found,  were  sure  to  be  sur- 
rounded by  reefs  and  sunken  rocks  upon  which  the 
brig  was  likely  to  strike  whenever  she  ventured  near 
enough  to  learn  where  the  seals  were  to  be  found. 

For  junior  officers.  Captain  Sheffield  needed  men, 
of  each  of  whom  It  might  truthfully  be  said  that 
"he  could  smell  his  way  through  fog  by  night  from 
Hell  Gate  to  Providence."  So,  he  Invited  young 
Nat  Palmer  to  go  along  as  second  mate,  although 
the  boy  had  never  made  a  deep-water  voyage. 
Whereupon  Nat,  with  love  of  adventure  spurring 
him  on,  accepted  the  Invitation. 


CHAPTER  III 

LEARNING  THE  COURSE  TO  THE  SOUTH  SHETLANDS 

THE  Hersilia  left  Stonington  In  July,  1819, 
bound,  first  of  all,  to  the  Cape  de  Verde 
Islands  for  salt  with  which  to  cure  the 
furs  she  was  to  get  if  and  when  she  found  the 
Auroras,  Seal  skins  were  commonly  cured  by  dry- 
ing, in  those  days,  but  it  was  believed  that  the 
rains,  sleets  and  snows  prevailing  in  the  region  south 
of  Cape  Horn  would  prevent  drying.  Having  pur- 
chased 600  bushels  of  salt  at  the  islands  the  brig 
squared  away  for  the  Falkland  Islands,  where  she 
stopped  to  fill  her  water  casks  and  to  refresh  her 
crews.  For  scurvy  was  the  scourge  of  the  sea,  and 
fresh  provisions  provided  the  only  known  remedy. 
The  Falklands,  though  a  treeless  group,  had  been 
stocked  with  cattle  and  hogs  by  early  explorers, 
and  both  kinds  of  animals  had  thrived.  Then  thou- 
sands of  wild  fowl  came  there  in  the  nesting  season 
and  their  eggs  were  to  be  had  in  any  quantity;  for 
it  was  in  October,  the  beginning  of  the  summer  sea- 
son, when  the  Hersilia  arrived  there.  Furthermore, 
a  species  of  grass,  with  stalks  eight  to  ten  feet  high, 
abounded,  and  the  roots  and  stalks  were  good  to 
eat,  and  they  were  an  excellent  antiscorbutic. 

23 


24  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

In  order  to  gather  a  large  supply  of  fresh  eggs, 
wild  fowl,  pork  and  beef,  and  of  the  greens,  Second 
Mate  Nat  Palmer  and  one  of  the  sailors  were 
landed  on  an  island  where  the  supplies  were  to  be 
had,  as  soon  as  the  Hersilia  arrived.  The  brig  then 
sailed  away  to  the  south  of  Staten  Island  in  order 
to  carry  on  the  search  for  Aurora  Islands  during 
the  time  the  two  men  were  gathering  the  supplies. 

Leaving  young  Palmer  and  the  sailor  thus  and 
going  on  with  the  search  was  characteristic  of  our 
sailors  of  the  sail  in  those  days.  A  captain  from 
Europe  would  have  anchored  at  the  island  while 
the  crew  as  a  whole  gathered  the  supplies — as  one 
did  do  while  young  Nat  was  there.  But  Sheffield 
had  come  to  search  for  seal  islands  and  he  would 
not  spend  even  one  day  unnecessarily  in  port.  He 
was  thus  not  only  economizing  time  but  he  was 
doing  all  he  could  to  forestall  any  other  vessel  that 
might  come  to  those  waters  on  the  same  errand. 
The  American  sailor  of  the  sail  was  not  to  be 
''caught  napping."  And  it  was  because  young  Nat 
was  especially  alert  that  this  exploring  voyage 
proved  notably  successful,  and  is  now  memorable 
for  something  more  than  the  profit  secured. 

One  day  while  Palmer  and  his  man  were  busy 
with  their  work,  they  saw  a  strange  sail — a  brig  that 
was  manifestly  not  the  Hersilia — appear  in  the 
northwest.  A  little  later  it  was  seen  that  she  was 
heading  in  to  make  the  harbor  in  their  island.  One 
account  says   that  young  Nat  then  went  off   and 


Learning  the  Course  to  the  South  Shetlands     25 

piloted  her  In  but  another  makes  no  mention  of 
his  going  to  meet  her.  It  Is  certain,  however,  that 
when  she  had  anchored  in  the  harbor  young  Nat 
perceived  that  she  had  been  elaborately  fitted  out 
for  sealing.  He  now  wanted  to  learn  where  she 
expected  to  find  seals — whether  she  was  to  work  the 
well-known  rookeries  or  some  that  were  newly  dis- 
covered; and  If  the  latter,  where  they  were  located. 

What  he  did  learn  was  that  the  brig  was  named 
Espirito  Santo.  She  was  from  Buenos  Ayres  but 
she  was  owned  by  Englishmen  and  was  manned  by 
English  sailors.  American  and  British  writers 
were  constantly  nagging  each  other  In  those  days, 
but  young  Nat  and  his  man  were  cordially  received 
by  the  English  captain.  In  return  the  two  Yankees 
went  to  work  to  help  the  British  crew  secure  a  full 
supply  of  fresh  provisions;  and  Yankee  efficiency 
soon  overcame  any  lurking  prejudice  which  mem- 
bers of  the  crew  of  the  Espirito  Santo  may  have 
held. 

Pleasant  relations  having  thus  been  established, 
young  Nat  was  able  to  learn  that  the  brig  had  been 
fitted  for  a  short  voyage.  Where  she  was  bound 
her  crew  naturally  refused  to  tell,  but  why  she  had 
been  fitted  out  was  told.  A  seal  Island  had  been 
discovered  in  recent  times  by  a  merchantman  round- 
ing the  Horn,  and  the  Espirito  Santo  was  to  make 
the  first  killing. 

The  story  of  the  discovery  of  this  new  Island 
is  now  told  in  Findlay's  "Sailing  Directory  for  the 


26  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

South  Atlantic  Ocean."  A  British  brig  named 
JVilliam,  Captain  William  Smith,  of  Blyth  (he  was 
later  knighted),  was  in  those  days  plying  regularly 
between  the  River  Plate  and  Valparaiso,  carrying 
freight,  passengers  and  the  mails.  Nowhere  else 
in  the  world  was  a  regular  service  maintained  under 
such  distressful  and  perilous  conditions  as  those  pre- 
vailing along  the  route  around  Cape  Horn.  The 
passage  of  the  JVilliam  to  the  west  was  usually 
made  under  especially  bad  conditions  because  the 
prevailing  winds  were  from  the  west.  Gale  followed 
gale  in  swift  succession  and  every  blast  was  laden 
with  snow,  sleet  and  spray.  The  decks  became  at 
times  coated  with  ice  and  the  rigging  was  frozen 
stiff.  The  little  brig  on  some  voyages  beat  to  and 
fro  for  many  days  at  a  stretch  without  making  a 
mile  on  her  course  to  westward;  and  it  sometimes 
happened  that  she  was  driven  so  far  back  and  away 
from  her  course  that  a  week  of  fair  winds  was 
needed  to  enable  her  to  recover  the  position  from 
which  the  storm  had  driven  her. 

In  February,  1818,  one  of  these  storms  came 
upon  her  as  she  was  beating  to  westward.  The 
wind  (and  the  current  as  well),  carried  her  help- 
less, to  the  south  as  well  as  the  east,  and  while 
she  was  thus  wallowing  in  the  seas,  the  murk  of 
the  storm  opened  and  a  mountainous  island  covered 
for  the  most  part  with  ice  and  snow  was  seen.  Be- 
cause no  land  was  marked  on  the  William's  chart 
of   that  region,    Captain  Smith,   on  his  return  to 


Learning  the  Course  to  the  South  Shetlands     27 

Buenos  Ayres,  sent  a  report  of  what  he  had  seen 
to  the  Board  of  Trade,  in  London.  Then,  on  his 
next  passage  westward,  he  reached  down  to  make  a 
more  careful  examination  of  land.  His  report  of 
what  he  then  saw  was  In  part  as  follows: 

'*I  .  .  .  discovered  land  on  the  15th  of  October 
at  6  P.  M.  in  lat.  62°  30',  long.  60"^  W.  by  chrono- 
meter. .  .  .  Hauled  off  during  the  night.  ...  At 
daylight  stood  In  .  .  .  got  the  island  to  bear  N.  W. 
distant  half  a  league.  .  .  .  Finding  the  weather  fa- 
vourable we  down  boat  and  landed;  found  it  barren 
and  covered  with  snow.     Seals  in  abundance." 

It  was  this  report,  as  made  in  Buenos  Ayres,  on 
his  return  thither  after  this  second  voyage,  that  had 
brought  the  Epirito  Santo  on  a  sealing  expedition. 
She  was  sailing  on  definite  information  about  an 
island  of  which  the  people  of  Stonington  had  heard 
rumors. 

That  the  Englishmen  did  not  tell  young  Nat 
Palmer  where  the  island  lay  was  entirely  natural. 
Their  hope  of  large  profit  lay  in  keeping  the  posi- 
tion of  the  island  secret.  But  the  young  sailor  did 
learn  that  the  Island  had  been  discovered  by  a  vessel 
which  had  been  blown  from  its  course  while  sailing 
to  the  west  around  the  Horn.  The  quick-witted 
youth  then  reasoned  that  the  new  land  must  lie  east 
of  the  longitude  of  the  Horn.  Further  than  that 
it  was  probable  that  the  brig  had  been  lying  to  on 
the  starboard  tack,  when  the  island  was  seen,  be- 


28  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

cause  she  would  Inevitably  take  that  tack  in  order 
to  drift  away  from  the  reefs  around  the  Horn.  He 
knew  that  while  lying  to  thus  on  the  starboard  tack 
every  blast  of  the  gale  had  certainly  driven  her  a 
longer  distance  to  the  south  than  to  the  east — her 
course  while  drifting  had  been,  very  likely,  to  the 
south-southeast.  So  the  young  sailor  reasoned  from 
his  experience  when  drifting  with  the  gales  through 
the  fogs  of  Long  Island  Sound,  during  previous 
years.  It  was  because  of  that  experience  that  he 
had  been  brought  on  the  expedition,  and  now  his 
ability  to  figure  out  the  course  of  a  drifting  ship 
was  to  be  of  very  great  service. 

When  the  Espirito  Santo  left  port,  young  Nat 
watched  her  as  long  as  he  could  see  her  and  thus 
learned  that  she  was  sailing  on  a  course  which  would 
take  her  to  a  point  where  he  estimated  the  William 
had  found  the  new  land;  and  he  impatiently  waited 
the  return  of  the  Hersilia. 

At  the  end  of  three  days  the  brig  came  sailing 
into  the  harbor.  As  soon  as  he  boarded  her  young 
Nat  told  his  story  to  Captain  Sheffield  and  gave  his 
estimate  of  the  course  to  take.  The  captain  at  once 
concurred  In  the  estimate;  and  after  taking  on  the 
fresh  food  young  Nat  and  the  sailor  had  secured, 
the  Hersilia  made  sail  in  the  wake  of  the  Espirito 
Santo.  For  four  days  she  held  the  course  as  laid 
down  by  young  Nat  and  then,  as  the  afternoon 
waned,  the  lookout  at  the  forecrosstrees  gave  the 
thrilling  cry  of  "Land  hoi" 


Learning  the  Course  to  the  South  Shetlands     29 

The  Islands  to  which  Second  Mate  Palmer  had 
thus  instinctively  guided  the  Hersilia  are  now  known 
as  the  South  Shetlands.  As  described  In  various 
works  the  group  Is  an  archipelago  of  volcanic  origin 
which  is  260  miles  long  if  measured  in  a  north- 
east and  southwest  direction.  There  are  ten  large 
islands,  all  of  which  are  separated  one  from  another 
by  deep  channels,  but  around  all  of  these  are  many 
islets  and  reefs  where  the  depth  of  water  is  un- 
known. At  the  northeast  end  the  largest  of  the 
group  is  named  King  George  (Powell's  chart). 
The  next  largest,  Livingston,  lies  near  the  south- 
west end  of  the  chain.  Smith's  Island,  named  for 
the  discoverer,  William  Smith,  Is  well  off  to  the  west 
of  Livingston,  but  the  most  interesting  of  the  whole 
group,  to  the  ordinary  reader,  Is  a  small  one  south 
of  Livingston  which  was  named  Deception  by  the 
Yankee  sealers,  and  it  still  holds  that  name. 

Nearly  all  of  the  Islands  are  mountainous,  the 
peaks  rising  from  2,000  to  3,000  feet  above  the 
sea,  and  one  on  Smith's  Island  is  6,600  feet  high. 
Every  mountain  is  covered  with  snow  the  year 
round,  save  for  a  narrow  rim  near  the  sea,  and  In 
every  canyon  is  a  glacier.  No  soil  or  even  sand 
is  found  in  the  bare  terrane  alongshore  (save  only 
in  Yankee  Harbor),  but  there  Is  mud  at  the  bottom 
of  some  of  the  harbors.  Broken  and  ragged  lava 
formations  are  seen  wherever  the  snow  is  melted 
away  in  summer,  and  the  only  vegetation  Is  a  sort 
of  moss. 


30  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

The  shores  of  the  larger  Islands  are  all  deeply 
indented  with  fiords  and  bays,  thus  providing  many 
harbors,  some  of  which  are  land-locked  and  safe 
in  the  worst  storms. 

When  the  air  Is  clear  the  Islands  are  visible  from 
incredible  distances.  Dr.  Eights,  a  scientist  who 
went  there  with  an  exploring  expedition  to  be  de- 
scribed In  another  chapter,  wrote  that  "the  nu- 
merous furrows  and  ravines  .  .  .  are  distinctly 
visible  for  fifty  or  sixty  miles"  (Niles's  Register, 
May  8,  1834).  But  while  he  was  there,  "not  a 
day  occurred  that  snow  did  not  fall,  or  Ice  make 
on  our  decks.  .  .  .  The  prevailing  winds  were 
from  the  southwest  and  northwest."  A  current 
that  flowed  constantly  from  the  southwest  was  ob- 
served, and  when  this  was  measured  later,  by  Cap- 
tain Palmer,  he  ascertained  that  the  speed  was  three 
knots  an  hour. 

Dr.  Eights  wrote  that  "there  were  evidences  of 
a  number  of  active  volcanoes  In  the  vicinity,"  and 
numerous  pieces  of  pumice  stone  were  "strewed 
along  the  beaches." 

The  wild  life  of  the  islands  attracted  more  at- 
tention from  the  doctor  than  any  other  feature. 
"In  calm  weather  great  number  of  whales  were  seen 
breaking  the  surface  of  the  ocean  between  tjie  nu- 
merous Icebergs.  .  .  .  When  they  perish  their  car- 
casses are  taken  by  the  billows  and  thrown  far  upon 
the  land;  here  they  are  left  by  the  waves  and  In  a 
few  hours  their  bones  become  perfectly  denuded  by 


Learning  the  Course  to  the  South  Shetlands     31 

the  numberless  sea  birds  that  feed  upon  their  flesh. 
.  .  .  Entire  skeletons  of  the  whale,  fifty  or  sixty 
feet  in  length,  are  not  infrequently  found  in  elevated 
situations — many  feet  above  the  highwater  line." 

Dolphins  and  porpoises  abounded.  There  were 
seemingly  millions  of  the  birds  of  the  region,  vary- 
ing in  size  from  the  albatross  to  the  stormy  petrel. 
It  is  said  that  the  petrels  laid  their  eggs  in  a  heap  of 
warm  volcanic  ashes  found  on  one  island  and  that 
the  eggs  were  hatched  without  further  care  from  the 
mothers. 

No  adequate  description  of  the  dangers  of  naviga- 
tion among  the  group  has  ever  been  written,  or  can 
be.  To  say  that  hundreds  of  icebergs  and  other 
masses  of  ice,  including  vast  fields,  are  to  be  seen 
among  and  around  the  islands  at  all  times  does  not 
suffice;  but  if  the  reader  can  imagine  those  ice  masses 
clashing  together  during  the  hurricane  squalls  and 
while  dense  fogs  and  blinding  snow  squalls  prevail; 
and  while  the  drag  of  the  currents  among  the  reefs 
is  added  to  all  other  dangers,  perhaps  the  situation 
of  sealers  afloat  there  will  be  comprehended;  and 
some  idea  of  the  conditions  under  which  the  Stoning- 
ton  sailors  gathered  their  harvest  will  be  had. 

As  it  happened  when  the  Hersilia  arrived  within 
view  of  the  group  the  weather  was  vile.  For  two 
days  she  lay  to  in  the  lee  of  an  island.  Then  the 
air  cleared,  the  sea  became  smooth  and  she  was  able 
to  stand  Into  a  harbor  which  could  be  seen  when 
off  shore.    When  close  in,  a  boat  was  lowered  with 


32  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

which  young  Nat  went  ahead  to  look  for  a  clear 
channel.  Rounding  a  point  at  the  entrance  of  the 
harbor  he  saw  the  Espirito  Santo  at  anchor  within, 
but  no  one  was  to  be  seen  on  her  deck.  Accord- 
ingly he  rowed  alongside  and,  climbing  on  board, 
looked  around,  only  to  find  that  she  seemed  to  be 
wholly  deserted.  Then  he  walked  to  the  open  main 
hatch  and  saw  in  the  hold  the  captain  at  work  with 
a  boy,  salting  down  seal  skins. 

Young  Nat's  footsteps  made  the  captain  look  up 
hastily,  and  with  an  exclamation  of  surprise  he  rec- 
ognized the  youth  who  had  helped  to  provide  fresh 
supplies  for  the  Espirito  Santo  at  the  Falklands. 
But  the  Englishman  was  what  would  now  be  called 
a  good  sport. 

"Never  mind,"  he  said.  "There  are  plenty  of 
seals  for  all." 

It  was  so.  The  rookeries  were  covered  with 
thousands  of  seals  of  all  sizes.  Both  crews  were 
able  to  secure  full  cargoes  from  the  finest  of  the 
herds.  It  Is  a  memorable  fact,  too,  that  when  the 
Englishman  had  finished  his  own  load  he  turned  to 
and  helped  the  Hersilias  to  complete  their  cargo. 
He  was  working  on  the  theory  that  "blood  Is  thicker 
than  water,"  to  quote  the  words  of  another  sailor 
which  were  expressed  years  later  in  China. 

In  order  that  the  reader  who  Is  not  familiar 
with  the  seal  fishery  may  appreciate  the  work  of 
young  Palmer  at  the  Shetland  Islands,  it  seems  need- 
ful to  interrupt  the  narrative  of  events  and  describe 


Learning  the  Course  to  the  South  Shetlands     33 

in  some  detail  the  methods  by  which  the  sealers 
secured  their  furs,  and  to  give  a  few  notes  on  the 
habits  of  the  seals. 

According  to  the  records  the  seals  of  the  Antarc- 
tic come  to  the  beaches  to  which  they  resort  during 
the  month  of  November.  First  of  all  the  old  males, 
called  wigs,  appear  and  take  stations  on  the  rocks 
and  shingie  alongshore.  The  most  powerful  of 
these  seals  choose  places  near  the  centers  of  the 
largest  beaches.  The  less  powerful  go  where  they 
will  be  undisturbed  by  the  big  ones;  for  vicious 
battles  occur  when  two  old  wigs  come  anywhere 
near  each  other. 

In  a  few  days  the  females  follow  and  soon  bring 
forth  their  young.  They  are  meantime  gathered 
into  large  harems  around  the  more  powerful  males 
in  the  middle  grounds  and  into  small  groups  by  the 
outlying  males.  The  larger  groups  number  any- 
where from  fifty  to  a  hundred  while  the  outlying 
males  may  have  no  more  than  four  or  five  or  even 
one. 

The  young  males  of  from  two  to  four  years  of 
age,  being  unable  to  compete  with  their  fathers, 
gather  in  herds  apart.  The  skins  of  these  young- 
sters always  bring  the  highest  prices  In  the  market. 

After  the  young  are  born  the  mother  seals  go 
out  to  sea  for  food,  leaving  their  young  (one  each) 
asleep  In  the  midst  of  the  masses  of  other  young. 
They  are  away  feeding  for  hours  at  a  stretch  but 
when  they  return  and  call  to  their  pups  each  is 


34  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

answered  by  her  own,  and  each  goes  to  her  own 
without  error. 

The  large  assemblies  of  seals  are  called  rookeries. 
Small  assemblies  numbering  from  two  or  three  up 
to  a  dozen  or  so  are  to  be  found  on  some  of  the 
flat-topped  rocks  that  rise  above  the  tide  off  shore. 
Rocks  of  the  kind  found  on  the  half-tide  reefs 
usually  have  a  few  seals  as  regular  visitors.  No 
matter  how  heavy  the  pounding  of  the  surf  on  the 
reefs  around  such  a  rock,  the  seals  come  snorting 
and  playing  through  all,  climb  the  slope  to  the  crest 
and  there,  where  the  spray  Is  continuously  thrown 
upon  them,  they  stretch  out  and  go  to  sleep. 

The  work  of  securing  seal  skins  was  In  some  re- 
spects the  most  dangerous  and  perhaps  In  all  re- 
spects the  most  disagreeable  known  to  our  sailors 
of  the  sail.  It  was  especially  so  during  the  second 
voyage  of  young  Palmer  to  the  South  Shetlands 
because  of  the  competition.  When  two  vessels  only 
were  among  the  Islands  (as  during  his  first  voyage), 
the  men  could  choose  their  rookeries  and  consider 
the  conditions  of  the  weather  with  an  eye  to  safety 
if  not  for  comfort.  But  with  thirty  most  energetic 
crews  competing  among  the  Islands,  as  happened 
at  the  South  Shetlands  during  the  season  of  1820- 
182 1,  every  day  was  a  working  day,  and  to  secure  a 
full  harvest  It  was  necessary  to  visit  the  outlying 
rocks  as  well  as  the  populous  rookeries. 

Whaleboats  were  used  to  carry  the  men  from 
the  vessels  to  some  of  the  smaller  rookeries.    These 


Learning  the  Course  to  the  South  Shetlands.     35 

boats  were  around  25  feet  long,  5  wide  and  2  deep. 
White  oak  was  used  for  their  frames  and  half-inch 
cedar  for  the  planks.  In  model  these  boats  were 
like  those  of  the  Vikings — sharp  at  both  ends. 
When  afloat  each  boat  was  manned  by  five  or  six 
men,  one  of  whom  was  usually  a  mate  who  stood 
at  the  stern  and  steered  by  means  of  a  long  oar. 
As  second  mate  of  the  Hersilia  young  Nat  had 
plenty  of  experience  in  handling  these  boats,  and 
when  a  landing  was  to  be  made  through  the  heavy 
surf  on  a  rock-strewn  beach  he  held  the  lives  of 
the  crew  in  his  hands.  For  the  rookeries  were  al- 
ways found  on  the  beaches  exposed  to  the  seas. 
The  waves  came  unimpeded  over  a  thousand  miles 
of  open  water,  and  where  they  crashed  down  on  the 
rock-strewn  slope — where  the  whaleboat  had  to 
land — they  covered  and  concealed  numberless  bowl- 
ders and  rock  masses  which  were  death  traps  for  the 
sealers.  But  the  young  mate,  standing  with  legs 
wide  apart  at  the  stern,  and  with  both  hands  on  the 
long  steering  oar,  peered  through  the  spoondrift 
ahead  for  the  hidden  reefs,  the  while  he  instinctively 
hastened  or  slowed  the  stroke  of  the  oarsmen  until 
a  great  wave  lifted  the  boat  on  its  crest  and  then 
rushed  on  until  it  flattened  out  where  the  water 
shoaled  so  that  the  men  could  leap  over  the  rails 
and  drag  the  frail  craft  up  to  safety. 

Taking  seals  from  the  off-shore  rocks  was  still 
more  trying.  At  first  thought  one  would  suppose 
that  the  sealers  would  wait  for  a  quiet  day  and  then 


36  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

row  out  to  the  lone  rocks  and  capture  the  seals  at 
ease.  But  the  fact  Is  that  many  of  those  rocks 
were  not  to  be  scaled  in  quiet  weather,  for  they  were 
steep-sided  and  towered  high  above  the  still  water. 
It  was  only  when  storms  prevailed  and  the  waves 
rolled  high  enough  to  lift  a  boat  up  to  the  level 
of  the  top  of  the  rock  that  the  seals  there  could 
be  secured. 

Consider,  now,  how  these  seals  were  taken  from 
the  rocks.  Waiting  until  a  gale  came  to  drive  the 
needed  high  waves  directly  past  a  deep-water  face 
of  the  seal  rock,  the  crew  of  a  whaleboat  rowed 
away  to  a  point  say  a  half-mile  up  wind  from  the 
chosen  reef.  There  the  boat  was  turned  and  headed 
back  directly  for  the  rock,  when  the  men  at  the 
oars  pulled  steadily  until  the  mate  judged  they  were 
within  striking  distance,  which  means  that  he  be- 
lieved the  boat,  with  lively  rowing,  could  be  sent 
past  the  rock  on  the  crest  of  one  of  those  immense 
rollers  which  come  In  threes.  Then  the  bow  oars- 
man took  In  his  oar,  picked  up  a  club,  slipped  a 
coil  of  whale  line  over  his  arm  and  stood  up  on 
his  thwart,  facing  the  rock.  The  crew,  meantime, 
pulled  their  oars  with  all  their  might  until  the  boat 
seemed  about  to  crash  against  the  rock,  when  the 
mate  turned  the  bow  to  one  side,  the  oars  were  al- 
lowed to  trail  and  then,  as  the  boat  drove  swiftly 
past,  the  bowman  leaped  forth  to  land  on  the  rock 
as  best  he  could. 

Occasionally  a  man  fell  short,  and  was  picked  up 


Learning  the  Course  to  the  South  Shetlands     37 

or  drowned  as  the  case  might  be,  but  usually  a  land- 
ing was  effected;  when  the  seals  were  knocked  in 
the  head  and  skinned.  Of  course  the  man  and  his 
catch  were  recovered  by  similar  dashes  past  the 
rock,  the  bundle  of  skins  being  hauled  off,  first  of 
all,  by  means  of  the  whale  line. 

During  Captain  Nat's  second  voyage  the  seal- 
ers from  thirty  different  vessels  (and  more  espe- 
cially the  English  and  the  Yankee  sealers)  eagerly 
raced  through  the  living  storms  of  the  South  Shet- 
lands to  positions  from  which  a  man  could  leap 
from  a  driven  boat  on  the  crest  of  a  wave  to  the 
crest  of  a  rock  which  was  at  all  other  times  in- 
accessible. One  hundred  years  later — on  a  day  in 
July,  1920 — a  British  crew  and  an  American  crew, 
each  the  pick  of  its  own  nation,  went  out  to  sea  off 
Sandy  Hook,  New  York,  to  sail  two  splendid  yachts 
in  a  friendly  competition  for  the  most  famous  trophy 
known  to  the  history  of  manly  sports — the  Ameri- 
ca's cup.  As  a  piece  of  silver  the  cup  was  insignifi- 
cant, but  to  win  it  was  to  secure  the  leadership  of 
the  yachting  world.     It  was  a  contest  for  Honor. 

But  when  the  yachtmen  arrived  at  the  old  light- 
ship they  found  the  wind  blowing  at  the  rate  of 
twenty  knots  an  hour  and  the  sea  was  rumpled. 
One  look  upon  the  rumples  was  enough  for  them. 
It  would  never  do  to  sail  a  yacht  only  70  feet  long 
on  the  waterline  under  such  dangerous  conditions 
as  prevailed,  and,  squaring  away,  they  hastened  back 
to  the  sheltering  arm  of  Sandy  Hook. 


38  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

Whether  the  sealers  worked  on  the  beaches  or 
the  outlying  rocks,  they  were  continuously  drenched 
by  the  spray  and  the  spoondrift  and  the  solid  water 
into  which  they  leaped;  and  by  the  sleet  that  fell 
upon  and  coated  them  with  ice.  They  were  chilled 
by  the  piercing  gales.  They  often  slipped  and  fell 
on  the  rocks  and  were  painfully  bruised.  They  were 
sometimes  bitten  by  the  seals  and  sometimes  thrown 
headlong  by  a  rush  of  the  herd  they  were  trying  to 
kill.  Now  and  then,  a  boat's  crew  was  overturned 
by  a  curling  wave  and  her  crew  were  lost.  Now  and 
then  a  man  was  killed  by  a  fall  over  a  precipice. 

When  at  nightfall  they  returned  in  their  water- 
soaked  clothing  to  the  ship  there  was  no  fire  in 
either  the  cabin  or  the  forecastle  by  which  they 
could  warm  their  chilled  bodies.  But  the  records 
show  that  the  men  of  the  sealing  crews  were  all 
so  eager  to  take  part  in  the  work  that  the  cooks 
and  cabin  boys  left  their  easy  berths  on  the  ships 
to  go  afloat  in  the  whaleboats;  and  the  only  grum- 
bling heard  came  from  the  man  who  was  necessarily 
left  on  each  vessel  as  keeper. 

There  is  another  record  which  says  that  the 
wealth  of  Stonington  is  founded  on  the  accumula- 
tions made  by  those  sealers.  What  would  those 
sailors  of  the  sail  who  were  thus  developing  a 
wealthy  community  as  well  as  harvesting  a  fortune 
each  for  himself — what  would  they  say  if  they 
could  return  and  meet  the  men  who  now  organize 
labor  monopolies  by  which  to  limit  the  production 


Learning  the  Course  to  the  South  Shetlands    39 

of  the  most  skilled  to  that  of  the  weaklings  and 
slackers? 

Nearly  all  of  the  catch  of  the  Stonington  men, 
in  1 820-1 82 1,  was  secured  by  companies  who  landed 
and  made  camps  on  the  islands  close  to  the  rook- 
eries. By  day  they  killed  and  skinned  as  many 
seals  as  they  could,  the  average  day's  work  being 
fifty  skins.  Night  and  morning  they  cooked  the 
food  brought  to  them  from  the  ships  by  means  of 
fires  made  of  seal  fat — Eskimo  fashion — and  they 
slept  on  boards  laid  for  floors  in  the  canvas-and- 
board  huts  in  which  they  lived.  These  men  were 
really  more  comfortable  than  those  who  lived 
aboard  ship,  for  they  had  fires  in  their  huts  by 
which  they  could  get  warm.  The  smoke  of  the 
burning  fat  made  them  all  as  black  as  Negroes  but 
that  was  a  matter  over  which  they  cracked  many 
a  joke. 

A  part  of  the  work  of  curing  the  skins,  as  every 
trapper  will  recognize,  was  cleaning  the  fat  from 
the  flesh  side.  This  was  done  as  tanners  do  such 
work — by  shaving  the  blubber  off  with  a  "beaming 
knife" — a  back-breaking  job. 

Because  some  who  read  this  biography  are  sure 
to  be  shocked  by  what  they  will  call  the  merciless 
slaughter  which  exterminated  the  seal  herds,  it  seems 
needful  to  say  first  that  the  slaughter  was  not  cruel. 
The  seals  were  killed  by  a  single  blow  on  the  head, 
for  the  skull  was  thin  and  easily  crushed  in.  Death 
was  instantaneous.     As   for  the  extermination  of 


40  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

the  herds  the  blame  should  be  placed  upon  the  state 
of  civilization  then  prevailing  and  not  on  the  seal- 
ers. The  islands  where  the  seals  were  found  might 
have  been  preserved,  as  Lobos  Island  was  preserved 
at  the  mouth  of  the  River  Plate,  and  as  the  Prib- 
alov  Islands  of  Alaska  are  now  preserved;  but  it 
was  the  business  of  government — any  government 
willing  to  do  the  work — to  preserve  the  herds  at 
the  Shetlands  and  elsewhere  and  not  the  business 
of  the  sealers.  As  long  as  no  nation  was  sufficiently 
civilized  to  do  this  work,  each  sealer  was  obliged 
to  take  as  many  as  possible  while  there  were  any 
to  take.  It  was  a  free-for-all  contest  and  the  men 
who  were  most  successful  are  now  memorable  for 
their  courage  and  prowess. 

The  Hersilia,  in  the  voyage  which  began  in  1819, 
had  salt  for  only  10,000  skins — 600  bushels.  The 
skins  of  young  bachelor  seals  were  therefore  se- 
lected. When  the  salt  had  all  been  used  the  crew 
made  all  sail  for  home  and  kept  the  little  brig 
traveling.  In  Stonington  the  skins  sold  for  $2  each, 
or  $20,000  for  the  cargo,  say  eight  times  the  cost 
of  the  entire  outfit.  Young  Nat's  share  of  the  cargo 
was  probably  one  in  35,  or  say  280  skins  which 
sold  for  $560.  For  that  day  the  pay  of  the  young 
man  for  this  voyage,  lasting  eight  or  nine  months, 
was  considered  something  memorable. 

When  the  Hersilia  had  discharged  her  cargo  at 
Stonington  the  owners  at  once  began  fitting  out 
another  expedition  for  a  voyage  to  the  newly  dis- 


Learning  the  Course  to  the  South  Shetlands    41 

covered  rookeries.  It  was  certain  that  the  Espirito 
Santo  would  return  there,  and  that  many  other 
sealers  would  also  go;  for  it  was  impossible  to  keep 
secret  the  fact  that  a  new  seal  island  had  been  found, 
and  even  its  location  was  sure  to  become  public 
property. 

Because  the  wit  and  knowledge  of  the  young  sec- 
ond mate  had  carried  the  Hersilia  to  the  new  rook- 
eries, it  was  a  matter  of  course  that  he  should  have 
a  position  in  this  second  expedition  which  would 
accord  with  his  abilities;  in  short  that  he  would  be 
promoted.  In  the  usual  course  a  young  man  in  his 
place  would  have  been  made  a  first  mate,  but  when 
he  sailed  from  Stonington,  the  next  time,  he  was 
captain  of  a  most  important  vessel,  and  the  success 
of  the  expedition  was  to  depend  to  a  large  extent 
upon  his  work. 


CHAPTER  IV 

MASTER    OF    A    TINY   TENDER 

WHEN  the  Hersilia  returned  to  Stonlngton, 
bringing  a  story  of  new  seal  islands 
discovered  near  the  place  where  the 
mythical  Auroras  were  supposed  to  lie,  and  vAth 
10,000  prime  seal  skins  to  prove  the  tale,  she  created 
intense  excitement  along  all  the  New  England  shore. 
The  fact  that  the  furs  were  of  unusual  beauty  was 
almost  as  interesting  as  the  statements  regarding 
the  number  of  seals  among  the  fslands. 

Straightway,  the  owners  of  suitable  vessels  at 
Salem,  Boston,  Nantucket,  New  Haven  and  New 
York  began  to  fit  out  expeditions  to  compete  with 
Stonington  for  the  furs  on  the  new  group;  while 
the  owners  of  Stonington  vessels  not  only  refitted 
the  Hersilia  but  they  added  several  others  and  then 
proceeded  to  build  one  especially  for  the  coming 
season.  In  all  five  brigs  and  two  schooners  were 
provided,  besides  a  sloop  which  was  constructed 
for  the  work.  The  names  of  the  vessels  were: 
brigs,  Hersilia,  Frederick,  Catharine,  Emaline, 
and  Clothier;  schooners  Express  and  Free  Gift.  The 
sloop   was  built  for  a   tender  or  waiter-in-general 

42 


Master  of  a  Tiny  Tender  43 

for  the  other  vessels,  and,  not  without  reason,  she 
was  named  Hero. 

In  several  respects  the  sloop  was  a  most  in- 
teresting vessel.  An  old  document  shows  that  she 
was  built  at  Groton,  Conn. ;  she  was  owned  by 
W.  A.  Fanning  and  Elisha  Faxon,  both  of  Stoning- 
ton,  and  she  measured  44  40/95  tons,  *'as  per 
register  granted  at  New  London  the  twenty-fifth 
day  of  July,  1820." 

The  dimensions  of  the  Hero  other  than  her  ton- 
nage have  been  lost,  but  if  the  rule  under  which 
she  was  measured  for  tonnage  be  considered  in 
connection  with  the  purpose  for  which  she  was  built, 
it  appears  that  she  was  not  to  exceed  fifty  feet  long 
on  deck  by  sixteen  or  seventeen  wide  and  six  or 
seven  deep.  That  she  was  broad  and  shallow  in 
proportion  to  her  length  is  certain,  first,  because 
that  was  then  the  favorite  model  of  all  American 
builders,  and  next  because  a  shoal  draft  was  neces- 
sary in  a  vessel  that  was  to  be  used  for  exploring 
the  uncharted  islands  to  which  she  was  bound. 

By  comparing  her  dimensions  with  those  of  the 
sloops  which  were  then  employed  by  the  hundred 
on  the  Hudson  River  one  may  get  a  better  idea  of 
just  how  small  she  was  for  the  voyage  to  a  region 
300  miles  below  Cape  Horn.  For  some  of  the 
Hudson  River  sloops  were  of  three  and  even  four 
times  her  tonnage  although  they  were  designed  for 
inland  water  traffic.  For  another  comparison  it 
may  be  noted  that  she  was  less  than  half  as  long 


44  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

as  the  yachts  which  competed  for  the  Americans 
cup  in  July,  1920.  Ordinarily  she  spread  two  or 
three  sails  to  the  wind,  a  big  mainsail  and  one  or 
two  jibs;  but  when  the  wind  was  fair  she  set  a 
great  squaresail.  Because  of  the  relative  size  of 
the  mainsail  the  sloop  rig  is  much  harder  to  handle 
in  heavy  weather  than  a  schooner  of  the  same  size 
of  hull.  It  was  for  this  reason  that  the  tender  of 
the  Wilkes  exploring  expedition  was  built  with  two 
masts. 

As  to  the  shape  of  the  Heroes  hull  it  is  to  be  noted 
that  while  one  which  is  broad  and  shallow  is  ad- 
mirably adapted  for  sheltered  and  smooth  waters 
it  is  dangerous  on  the  open  sea.  For,  if  a  broad 
hull  fifty  feet  long  falls  off  from  a  storm  wind 
until  she  is  broadside  to  it,  and  is  rolling  in  the 
trough  of  the  sea,  a  curling  wave  is  likely  to  hit  her 
under  the  quarter  as  she  rolls  and  turn  her  bottom 
up  instantly.  The  records  show  that  even  experi- 
enced Yankee  crews  have  been  thus  imprisoned  and 
lost. 

The  most  important  work  for  which  the  Hero 
was  designed  was  exploring  the  island  group.  She 
was  to  sail  here  and  there  along  the  coasts  and 
among  the  reefs  to  search  for  the  rookeries  sure 
to  be  found  there;  and  this  work  would  be  all  the 
more  important  because  many  competing  vessels 
were  to  go  to  the  South  Shetlands  during  the  ensuing 
season. 


s  c 

Oh     0* 


Master  of  a  Tiny   Tender  45 

Whaleboats  might  have  been  used  for  the  ex- 
plorations, and  they  were  so  used  by  other  vessels 
of  the  fleets;  but  the  Stonington  men  had  seen  that 
the  group  was  more  than  200  miles  long  and  that 
the  coast  line  would  measure  thousands  of  miles 
In  extent.  Something  larger  and  more  seaworthy 
than  a  rowboat,  and  yet  smaller  and  handier  than 
the  schooners,  was  needed — a  vessel,  in  short,  that 
could  enter  all  sorts  of  harbors  and  skim  all  sorts 
of  beaches  and  reefs. 

Because  of  the  character  of  the  work  the  Hero 
was  to  do  and  because  of  the  vile  weather  In  which 
It  was  to  be  done,  a  master  was  needed  who  was 
at  once  venturesome,  courageous,  and  withall  able 
to  handle  a  sloop  rig;  and  young  Nat  Palmer  was 
the  man  chosen  to  fill  It.  His  mate  was  named 
Phlneas  Wilcox. 

Carlyle,  In  one  of  his  essays  on  the  Vikings,  notes 
that  they  made  their  voyages  In  vessels  which  car- 
ried them  low  down  In  "the  moaning  brine,"  and 
that  such  voyages  gave  them  a  superior  training. 
The  little  sloop  Hero,  with  her  gunwale  a  foot 
out  of  water  when  In  port,  and  her  lee  rail  burled 
in  the  froth  when  at  sea,  afforded  just  such  a  school 
for  Captain  Nat  Palmer.  BjornI,  who  sailed  from 
Jutland  to  go  to  Greenland  to  drink  Christmas  ale 
with  his  father,  and  while  on  the  way  was  driven 
by  storms  to  the  coast  of  America — BjornI  was 
trained  in  no  better  school,  and  he  showed  no  more 


46  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

courage  than  the  boyish  sailor  of  the  sail  who  com- 
manded a  smaller  vessel  among  the  reefs  and  ice- 
floes 300  miles  below  Cape  Horn. 

The  Stonington  records  contain  some  interesting 
data  concerning  the  fleet  of  1820-182 1.  For  ex- 
ample, upon  a  worn  and  ragged  slip  of  paper  is 
written  a  list  of  supplies,  as  follows: 

Memorandum  Sloop  Hero. 

Two  composition  rudder  braces  and  two  do. 
pintals  for  hanging  rudder  with  the  bolts  and  nails 
for  do. 

200  sheets,  half  18  oz.  half  20  oz.  Best  London 
copper. 

150  2  inch  composition  nails  for  sheathing 
coppering. 

150  I  inch  composition  do  for  coppering. 

300  Best  smoothing  sheeting  paper. 

7  Bolts  best  Russia  duck  6  ditto  Bear  Rowans. 

A  sheet  or  charts  of  So.  America  from  the 
Equator  to  the  highest  South  Latitude  beyond 
Cape  Horn.  These  can  be  got  at  Patton's.  A 
sheet  of  charts  of  all  the  Atlantic  Ocean. 

To  a  sailor  the  fact  that  spare  pintals  and  rudder 
braces  and  sheathing  copper  were  carried  is  most 
Interesting.  For  these  extras  show  that  the  sloop 
was  expected  to  strike  on  some  reef  among  the 
islands,  and  so  wreck  the  rudder  and  break  in  the 


Master  of  a  Tiny  Tender  47 

bottom  planks — after  which,  however,  she  was  to 
be  hauled  off  and  repaired.  They  would  never  give 
up  the  sloop. 

The  same  paper  carries  a  list  of  the  supplies  pro- 
vided for  two  of  the  brigs  and  from  it  we  obtain 
an  Idea  of  what  all  the  crews  had  to  eat  and  drink, 
as  follows: 

60  hhds.  Navy  Bread 

60  bbl.  Mess  Beef 

40  bbl.  Mess  Prime  Pork 

4  bbl.  white  Beans 

4  do.  Peas 

4  do.  Vinegar 

10  qt.  Mustard 

2  gr.  chest  Campay  tea 

30  do.  Pepper 

4^  bbl.  Rum 

4  bbl.  Gin 

6  tt.  Codfish 

2  boxes  dip  Candles 

1  do.  Sperm  to  be  divided 

2  boxes  Soap 

8  bbl.  kiln  dried  Corn  Meal 

4  bbl.  Corn 

50  bushels  potatoes 

3  bbl.  dried  apples 
Sy2   Rice 

12  bbl.  Flour 
220  tt.  Coffee 


48  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

Then  follows  a  long  list  of  ship  stores  which 
Included  lumber,  spikes,  paint,  spare  oars  (forty 
that  were  i6  feet  long  and  twelve  that  were 
from  21  to  24  feet)  ;  tools,  boat  anchors,  tar,  whale 
line,  fish  lines,  guns  and  ammunition.  When  all 
these  stores  had  been  written  down  the  maker  of 
the  memorandum  returned  to  the  kind  of  supplies 
found  at  the  head  of  the  list  and  added  these : 

5  doz.  Fowls 
5>4  bbl.  Sugar 
2y2  bbl.  Rum 

2j^  bbl.  Teneriffe  Wine. 

The  implements  needed  In  taking  the  seals  and 
preparing  the  skins  were  these: 

200  hoop  poles 

8  doz.  skinning  knives 

6  doz.  steels  for  do. 

2^    doz.   skinning  knives  to  be  made  by  R. 
Brown 

^  doz.  beaming  knives  to  be  made  by  do. 

The  hoop  poles  were  cut  from  hickory  saplings 
and  were  perhaps  ten  feet  long  and  say  an  inch  or 
more  in  diameter  at  the  small  end.  Each  pole 
afforded  two  clubs  with  which  the  seals  were  knocked 
in  the  head.  In  later  years  of  the  fishery  the  poles 
were  cut  up  at  home  and  each  end  was  protected 
with  an  iron  ring,  because,  in  the  hurry  and  excite- 
ment of  the  killing,  the  men  frequently  missed  a  seal 
and  struck  a  rock  instead,  thus  rapidly  wearing  the 


Master  of  a  Tiny  Tender  49 

clubs  to  a  frazzle.  Later  still  (1880)  the  sealers 
used  rifles  because  the  seals  were  so  wild  it  was  im- 
possible to  take  them  with  clubs. 

Perhaps  the  lists  of  food  supplies  should  receive 
further  attention — at  least  to  note  that  the  men  had 
plenty  to  eat  and  drink.  In  referring  to  the  food 
supplies  of  the  sealer  Neptune,  which  was  at  the 
Falklands  in  1797,  the  supercargo,  Eben  Townsend, 
wrote : 

"A  sealing  crew  want  a  good  stock  of  bread, 
molasses  and  peas  for  coffee,  and  they  can  get  along 
with  little  beef  and  pork;  but  to  be  out  of  bread, 
or  molasses  for  sweetening  their  coffee,  is  very  un- 
comfortable. They  get  very  much  attached  to  what 
they  call  slops,  which  is  tea  and  coffee,  in  this  cold, 
uncheerful  country."  To  this  he  adds :  "They  cook 
the  haslet  [heart  and  liver  of  the  seal],  with  the  fat 
of  the  seal  both  for  fuel  and  fat,  and  it  tastes  very 
much  like  a  hog's  haslet." 

Of  course  the  numerous  birds  and  their  eggs  were 
used  as  food,  and  the  sealers  caught  many  fish. 
That  the  Stonington  fleet  was  well  supplied  with 
material  for  "slops"  and  the  much-needed  sweeten- 
ing is  apparent.  They  also  had  a  plenty  of  flour 
and  dried  apples  for  duff.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
American  ship  owners  as  a  class  always  made  boast 
of  the  amounts  of  food  supplied  to  the  seamen.  The 
crews  were  required  to  work  hard,  but  never  on 
empty  or  half-filled  stomachs.     The  exceptions  to 


50  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

this  rule  have  been  so  often  described  by  unfriendly 
writers  that  the  usual  conditions  found  on  American 
ships  have  been  obscured.  American  sailors  were 
always  fed  better  and  were  really  more  comfortable 
than  those  on  any  other  ships  afloat. 


CHAPTER  V 

CRUISING  AMONG  THE  SOUTH  SHETLANDS     , 

THE  log  book  of  the  Hero,  while  under  the 
command  of  Captain  Palmer  during  his 
second  voyage  to  the  South  Shetlands,  is 
a  most  interesting  and  valuable  historical  document 
because  the  little  vessel  was  then  sent  on  an  expedi- 
tion to  look  for  seals  during  which  a  long  stretch 
of  the  Antarctic  Continent  was  explored  for  the 
first  time — the  coast  which  now  bears  the  name  of 
Palmer  Land.  The  ordinary  log  book  used  by 
whalers  and  sealers,  in  those  days,  consisted  of  a  few 
hundred  large  sheets  of  soft  writing  paper  folded 
once,  sewed  with  a  stitch  or  two  of  sail  twine  to 
form  a  book,  which  was  then  bound  with  a  piece  of 
canvas  cut  from  an  old  sail.  The  log  of  the  Hero 
was  a  blank  book  manufactured  for  the  purpose. 
It  was  something  like  an  old-fashioned  diary.  The 
leaves  of  this  book  are  made  of  a  soft  writing  paper, 
each  being  8x13  inches  large.  Ruled  spaces  at  the 
top  of  each  page  are  provided  in  which  to  write  the 
date,  the  course  made  by  the  ship,  the  character  of 
the  weather  and  the  latitude  and  the  longitude,  each 
as  determined  by  observation  and  by  dead  reckon- 
ing.   Below  these  ruled  spaces  were  ruled  lines  which 

51 


52  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

were  numbered  for  each  hour  of  the  day  and  on 
these  lines  were  to  be  written  whatever  notes  the 
captain  or  his  mates  might  wish  to  make. 

On  the  first  page  of  the  cover  (a  stout,  flexible 
paper)  is  a  printed  title,  with  a  picture  of  an  old- 
fashioned  ship  under  all  plain  sail.  Below  that  is 
an  advertisement  of  the  publisher.  The  whole  title 
is  as  follows : 

The 

Seaman's  Journal 

Being  An 

Easy  and  Correct  Method 

OF 

Keeping  the  Daily  Reckoning 

OF  A 

Ship, 
During  the  Course  of  Her  Voyage. 

The  advertisement  announces  that  "J.  Desnoues, 
printer,  1 1  Nassau  Street,"  Issued  the  volume  and 
that  It  was  "sold  by  Samuel  A.  Burtus,  at  his  Book 
Store  and  Lottery  Office,  No.  19  Peck  Slip,  corner 
of  Water  Street,"  New  York. 

To  prestrve  this  book  during  the  voyage.  Captain 
Nat  covered  It  with  canvas,  neatly  hemmed  and 
sewed  on.  Inside  of  the  back  of  this  canvas  cover 
is  a  pen-and-ink  sketch  of  a  two-masted  schooner, 
carrying  all  plain  sail.  Including  a  square  fore  top- 
sail and  topgallant  sail,  In  a  spanking  breeze — a 
live  picture  In  spite  of  the  material  upon  which  it 
was  drawn.     One  may  suppose  that  the  boyish  cap- 


Cruising  Among  the  South  Shetlands        53 

tain  drew  it  with  the  schooner  Express,  of  which  it 
is  a  picture,  under  his  eye  at  sea. 

The  first  entry  in  the  log,  dated  August  i,  1820, 
reads : 

"Commences  with  fair  weather  with  breeze  from 
W  S  W.  At  6  P  M  made  Block  Island.  Bore  by 
compass  N  N  W  ^  W  distant  about  4  leagues  from 
which  I  take  my  departure.     Course  S  E  by  E." 

The  writing  is  small,  ornate  and  easily  read,  save 
where  the  ink  has  faded  or  has  been  worn  away  by 
handling.  The  spelling  is  with  rare  exceptions  cor- 
rect and  the  few  mistakes  are  manifestly  due  to  in- 
advertence rather  than  ignorance. 

Ships'  logs  are  always  monotonous  records  of 
weather,  speed,  course  made,  and  so  on,  and  the 
Hero's  is  no  exception  in  this  respect  during  the  pas- 
sage to  the  Falkland  Islands.  But  it  may  be  noted 
that  while  all  the  vessels  of  the  fleet  had  sailed  to- 
gether from  Stonington,  only  the  Hersilia  and  the 
Express  were  in  view  of  the  Hero  on  the  5th  of 
August.  Each  was  making  the  best  speed  possible 
for  the  destination,  regardless  of  what  the  others 
might  do.  After  the  5th  the  Hersilia  disappeared, 
but  the  schooner  Express  and  the  Hero  were  in 
company  all  the  way  to  the  first  port. 

The  entry  dated  August  6  says  that  the  weather 
was  ''dark  and  glowery,"  but  the  young  captain  "set 
squaresail,"  after  which  a  heave  of  the  log  showed 
that  the  sloop  was  making  eight  knots.     That  day's 


54  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

run — from  noon  of  the  6th  to  noon  of  the  7th — 
was  160  sea  miles.  The  best  day's  run  of  the  pas- 
sage was  175  sea  miles,  which  was  a  notable  achieve- 
ment for  a  fifty-foot  boat. 

On  October  17,  1820,  the  entry  reads: 

^'Commences  with  fresh  gales  from  S  West  and 
clear  weather.  At  ^  past  i  made  the  land  bearing 
S  E  &  S  W.  Stood  in  for  it.  At  4  P  M  bore  away 
before  the  wind,  running  alongshore  the  whole 
night.  At  6  A  M  made  the  Volunteer  Rocks.  At 
10  anchored  in  Berkeley  Sound.  Found  there  two 
shallops  belonging  to  ship  G.  Knox.  The  Express 
in  company." 

Berkeley  Sound  is  in  the  northeast  corner  of  the 
Falkland  Islands.  From  this  anchorage  the  Hero 
and  the  Express  worked  west  along  the  north  coasts 
of  the  group,  gathering  fresh  meat,  wild  fowl  and 
so  on,  for  several  days.  Other  vessels  of  the  fleet 
were  met  on  the  way.    On  October  27,  at  4  P.  M., 

"Got  under  weigh  for  Staten  Island.  Soon  after 
we  were  boarded  by  a  boat  from  the  Catharine  who 
informed  us  that  one  of  her  boats  had  upset,  and 
that  Perry,  the  officer,  and  another  had  drowned — 
that  two  men  were  left  hanging  to  the  boat.  Took 
the  boat  in  tow  to  look  for  them.  At  8  being  down 
almost  to  Kidney  Island,  the  boat  left  us." 

The  loss  of  four  men,  thus  briefly  mentioned,  in- 
dicates the  danger  of  the  work  in  which  the  sealers 


Cruising  Among  the  South  Shetlands        55 

were  engaged.  For  the  lost  boat  had  been  turned 
over  when  at  sea  and  it  had  then  gone  adrift  where 
the  other  boat's  crew  and  the  men  of  the  Hero 
were  unable  to  find  it. 

The  Hero  with  the  Express  entered  Woodward 
Harbor,  Staten  Island,  on  October  31.  Several 
days  were  spent  in  gathering  fuel  and  exploring  the 
coast.  Plenty  of  eggs  were  found,  *'but  all  were 
spoilt."  Meantime  "got  a  bulkhead  chimney  built 
in  the  caboose."  The  sloop's  rigging  was  carefully 
overhauled  to  see  that  every  part  was  fit  to  withstand 
the  hurricane  blasts  of  the  far  South.  One  day  the 
sloop's  crew  "went  down  the  harbor  sealing  and 
got  seven." 

The  two  vessels  left  for  the  Shetlands  on  Novem- 
ber 5.  "Heavy  gales,  rain,  fog  and  snow"  were 
encountered  on  the  way  down,  but  on  the  8th  the 
weather  was  pleasant  and  the  wind  fair;  so  all  hands 
were  "employed  grinding  knives"  ready  for  skin- 
ning the  seals. 

On  the  9th  the  log  says  "we  are  anxiously  look- 
ing for  land.  Plenty  of  penguins,  whales  and  gulls 
about  us."  They  saw  Smith  Island,  the  next  day, 
and  squared  away  for  a  harbor  in  Ragged  Island, 
which  lies  off  the  southwest  coast  oT  Livingston, 
(Powell's  chart),  but  vile  weather  kept  them  at 
sea  until  the  1 2th  when  this  entry  appears : 

"Commences  with  thick  weather,  fresh  breeze  N 
by  E.  At  4  P  M  saw  Castle  Rock.  Stood  in  for 
Ragged  Island.     At  8,  being  in  the  mouth  of  the 


S6  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

harbor,  we  were  boarded  by  a  boat  from  the 
Hersilia,  Capt.  Sheffield.  He  Informed  us  that  he 
had  been  In  12  days,  and  that  the  Frederick  and 
Free  Gift,  Captains  Pendleton  and  Dunbar,  were  In 
a  harbor  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  strait.  At  10 
came  to  alongside  the  Hersilia.  Let  go  the  sheet 
anchor  in  four  fathoms  of  water." 

Captain  Palmer  then  called  away  a  boat  and 
crossed  to  President  Harbor,  where  the  vessels 
mentioned  were  at  anchor.  In  order  to  report  to 
Captain  Benjamin  Pendleton,  the  commodore  of  the 
fleet.  While  there  he  learned  that  there  were  "no 
seals  up" — the  season  was  not  yet  open. 

The  next  day  the  Hersilia,  the  Express  and  the 
Hero  were  all  anchored  in  President  Harbor. 
From  subsequent  entries  It  appears  that  the  vessels 
were  taken  to  this  harbor  because  a  great  stony 
beach,  to  which  the  seals  were  sure  to  come,  was  to 
be  found  near  the  port.  Lumber  and  sails  were 
landed  with  which  to  erect  shacks  for  the  men  to  live 
in  when  working  the  rookeries.  While  this  work 
was  in  hand,  fog  with  rain  and  snow  commonly  pre- 
vailed, but  when  a  pleasant  day  finally  did  come  the 
log  of  the  Hero  notes  that  her  captain  and  Captain 
Dunbar  went  "shooting  gulls,  chickens,  &c.  with 
great  success,"  after  which  "Capt.  Dunbar  with  Mr. 
Pendleton  dined  with  us." 

Nearly  all  the  furs  taken  by  the  Stonington  fleet 
in  1 820-1 82 1  were  secured  by  men  who  built  camps 


Cruising  Among  the  South  Shetlands         57 

near  large  rookeries,  and  from  day  to  day  killed 
as  many  seals  as  they  could  by  hard  work  handle. 
The  killing  did  not  frighten  the  seals  that  remained 
undisturbed  meantime.  It  was  the  custom  to  "cut 
out  of  the  herd"  a  "bunch"  (if  one  may  use  the 
cowboy  terms)  and  drive  them  slowly  up  the  slope 
of  the  beach — slowly  because  undue  haste  heated  the 
seals  and  injured  the  fur — and  then,  when  a  few 
rods  from  the  main  herd,  knock  them  down  with 
clubs. 

The  seals  thus  segregated  did,  sometimes,  make 
a  dash  for  the  sea  and  sailors  who  tried  to  stop 
them  were  often  thrown  violently  on  the  wet  rocks. 
Occasionally  a  man  has  been  killed  in  that  way.  But 
the  main  herd  was  never  seriously  alarmed  by  such 
a  flight,  and  the  slaughter  was  continued  from  day 
to  day  until  the  valuable  animals  had  all  been 
secured. 

As  the  record  shows  the  rookery  adjoining  the 
camp  on  President  Harbor  was  the  resort  of  a  great 
herd,  but  Commodore  Pendleton  perceived,  even 
before  the  seals  hauled  out,  that  it  would  not  furnish 
enough  skins  for  his  entire  fleet,  and  he  therefore 
ordered  Captain  Nat  to  go  in  search  of  others. 
The  Hero  sailed  on  this  exploring  expedition  at  2 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon  of  November  15,  and,  as 
the  log  says  "stood  over  for  Deception,  course  E 
for  the  north  head.  ...  At  8  being  close  in  with 
the  land,"  tacked  off  shore  for  the  night.  "Middle 
part  thick  snow  storm.    At  12  two-reefed  the  main- 


58  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

sail"  and  "tacked  to  the  East.  At  5  made  the  land 
and  stood  along  to  southard  and  eastard.  Saw 
what  we  thought  to  be  a  harbor.  Lowered  down 
the  boat  and  examined  It  but  were  disappointed. 
Stood  along  the  southard.  Saw  an  opening — stood 
in — found  it  to  be  a  very  spacious  harbor  with  very 
deep  water — 50  and  60  fathoms.  Got  out  the  boat 
to  sound,"  and  "found  anchorage  about  a  mile  and 
a  half  from  the  mouth.  At  1 1  we  came  to  in  18 
fathoms  off  the  mouth  of  a  lagoon.  Went  on  shore 
and  got  some  eggs.  Ends  with  thick  weather  and 
calm." 

That  is  to  say  this  little  sloop  was  adrift  through- 
out the  night  upon  an  unexplored  sea.  A  snow 
storm  that  shut  off  the  view  in  all  directions  pre- 
vailed and  the  wind  was  so  heavy  that  the  sail  was 
reefed.  It  was  reasonable  to  expect  that  reefs  were 
to  be  encountered  down  wind  and  icebergs  and  floes 
were  adrift  on  all  sides.  But  neither  the  discomforts 
nor  the  dangers  gave  the  crew  of  the  Hero  a 
moment's  worry. 

The  harbor  in  Deception  Island  Into  which  the 
sloop  sailed  is  referred  to  many  times  in  the  log 
of  the  Hero  under  the  name  of  Port  William,  but 
it  was  later  named  Yankee  Harbor  and  it  Is  so 
called  now.  The  Island  was  named  Deception  dur- 
ing the  previous  voyage  and  the  name  was  descrip- 
tive because,  as  seen  from  all  sides  but  one,  it 
seemed  to  be  a  solid  cone  about  seven  miles  in 
diameter  and  rising  to  height  of  from  four  to  six 


Cruising  Among  the  South  Shetlands        59 

hundred  feet  above  the  sea.  When  viewed  from 
the  southeast,  however,  the  entrance  which  the  log 
mentions  was  to  be  seen;  and  on  sailing  in,  a  circular 
harbor  about  five  miles  in  diameter  was  discovered. 
The  island  was  therefore  manifestly  the  top  of  a 
volcano,  the  crater  of  which,  five  miles  in  diameter, 
formed  the  harbor. 

Because  this  harbor  afforded  a  perfect  shelter  it 
was  made  the  port  of  refuge  of  five  of  the  Stonlng- 
ton  fleet.  A  year  later  it  was  used  by  another  sealing 
fleet,  and  later  still  it  was  used  by  two  British  sur- 
veying expeditions.  The  descriptions  which  have 
been  published  by  various  captains  show  that  it  was 
a  most  interesting  place.  Thus  one  captain  thought 
the  entrance  was  200  feet  wide  and  another  called 
it  a  cable's  length.  In  the  entrance  the  water  was 
seven  fathoms  deep ;  at  the  deepest  point,  which  was 
the  center  of  the  harbor,  it  was  97.  The  beaches 
all  around  the  interior  were  narrow.  Smoke  arose 
continually  from  small  vents  around  the  rim,  show- 
ing that  the  volcano  was  by  no  means  dead.  At 
several  points  on  the  beaches  hot  springs  boiled  forth 
and  one  on  the  northeast  side  of  the  crater  had 
such  a  flow  that  the  water  of  the  bay  was  warmed 
for  a  space  of  several  boat-lengths  from  the  beach; 
and  this,  too,  although  a  glacier  rested  but  a  few 
rods  away.  It  was  possible  to  throw  a  piece  of  ice 
from  this  glacier  into  water  hot  enough  to  boil  eggs. 
The  warm  water  space  was  the  resort  of  innumer- 
able  birds,    especially  penguins,   which   seemed   to 


6o  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

enjoy  the  warmth  very  much.  Of  course  the  sailors 
found  bathing  there  delightful. 

Findlay's  "Sailing  Directions"  says  that  "a  species 
of  coal  was  found"  by  the  British  warship  Chanti- 
cleer, "which  burnt  very  well." 

As  noted,  five  of  the  Stonington  fleet  came  to 
Yankee  Harbor.  This  move  was  hastened  because 
the  brig  Frederick,  the  flagship  of  the  fleet,  while 
lying  in  President  Harbor,  was  driven  from  her 
anchors  by  a  heavy  storm  and  narrowly  escaped 
going  on  the  beach. 

After  exploring  Yankee  Harbor,  the  Hero  cruised 
to  the  north  around  Livingston  Island  and  found 
several  rookeries.  One  of  the  memorable  incidents 
of  the  cruise  after  leaving  Yankee  Harbor  was  the 
result  of  an  effort  to  run  through  a  strait.  The 
Hero  grounded  on  an  unseen  ledge,  but  because  the 
venture  was  made  when  the  tide  was  rising  she  soon 
floated  clear.  Then,  while  the  captain  was  making 
some  needed  repairs,  he  observed  a  whale  head 
boldly  into  the  strait,  and  by  watching  the  course  it 
followed  he  learned  the  lay  of  the  channel. 

"Where  a  whale  can  go  I  can  follow,"  he  re- 
marked, and  he  then  sailed  through,  but  these  words 
are  not  found  in  the  log.  Note  of  them  was  made 
at  Stonington. 

Having  located  enough  beaches  to  keep  all  hands 
busy,  the  Hero  returned  to  the  fleet,  that  was  then 
in  President  Harbor,  and  she  was  lying  there  when 
the  storm  almost  wrecked  the  Frederick.     She  then 


Cruising  Among  the  South  Shetlands        6i 

went  with  the  fleet  to  Yankee  Harbor  (November 
24),  and  thereafter  was  employed  carrying  supplies 
from  the  ships  to  the  camp  at  President  Harbor 
and  skins  from  the  harbor  to  the  ships. 

In  the  first  of  these  trips  as  a  freighter,  the  Hero 
arrived  off  President  Harbor  at  10  o'clock  in  the 
morning  of  November  26,  and  found  465  skins 
ready  for  transportation  to  Yankee  Harbor,  the 
first  that  had  been  secured  there.  The  herd  was 
just  beginning  to  arrive  at  these  islands,  and  the 
date  was  just  a  month  later  than  the  first  arrivals 
at  the  Falklands,  showing  that  the  vast  herd  mi- 
grated from  the  north  to  these  breeding  grounds. 

The  number  of  skins  awaiting  transportation  at 
subsequent  trips  is  not  mentioned  until  that  made 
on  December  3d  when  the  number  was  905.  On 
the  next  trip — she  arrived  off  the  camp  on  the  7th 
— the  number  was  10,000.  These  skins,  when  car- 
ried to  the  vessels  in  Yankee  Harbor,  were  dis- 
charged from  the  sloop  between  the  hours  of  7 
P,  M.  and  midnight.  As  soon  as  the  skins  were  out 
the  Hero  sailed  once  more  for  President  Harbor, 
regardless  of  the  fact  that  her  crew  had  been  doing 
a  long  hard  job. 

Meantime  the  log  notes  that  other  vessels  were 
passing  to  and  fro  among  the  islands.  On  December 
9  a  ship  and  two  shallops  came  to  Yankee  Harbor. 
On  the  1 6th  the  Emaline  and  the  Catharine  came. 
They  brought  skins,  taken  on  the  north  side  of  Liv- 
ingston Island.     The  brig  Clothier  had  been  with 


62  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

them  but  a  heavy  gale,  which  they  had  survived, 
had  driven  her  on  the  rocks.  The  wreck  was  to  be 
seen  there  many  years  later.     It  may  yet  be  visible. 

On  the  whole  the  log  shows  that  while  Captain 
Palmer  and  the  sloop's  crew  now  had  no  part  in 
the  work  of  killing  the  seals,  they  were  engaged  in 
loading  the  skins  from  the  time  they  arrived  off 
any  one  of  the  camps  (for  others  were  established) 
until  all  were  on  board.  Then  they  hoisted  anchor 
and  made  sail  for  Yankee  Harbor,  standing  watch 
and  watch  while  on  the  way.  At  the  harbor  they 
helped  discharge  the  skins  on  board  one  of  the 
vessels  there,  took  on  supplies  for  the  camp,  and 
then  made  sail  back  to  one  of  the  camps.  They 
took  such  sleep  as  they  had  to  have  while  standing 
watch  and  watch  between  destinations.  And  they 
boasted  of  their  ability  to  work  thus.  It  was  char- 
acteristic of  the  Yankee  sailor  of  the  sail  to  brag, 
and  they  all  had  something  to  brag  about;  but  none 
made  good  in  quite  the  manner  of  the  sealers. 

The  fact  that  the  Heroes  crew  worked  for  an 
extraordinary  number  of  hours  every  day  is  a  matter 
of  especial  interest  in  this  tale  of  the  sea.  When 
opportunity  to  sleep  was  offered  them  they  were 
exceedingly  glad  to  turn  into  their  bunks  without  an 
instant's  delay.  So  a  time  came  when  the  young 
captain  was  so  tired  at  the  end  of  his  day's  work 
that  even  the  small  task  of  writing  up  the  log  in 
formal  fashion  seemed  too  great;  and  at  the  same 
time  it  seemed  really  needless  to  do  so.     For  the 


Cruising  Among  the  South  Shetlands        63 

entries,  while  the  Hero  was  serving  as  freighter 
between  President  Harbor  and  Yankee  Harbor, 
were  almost  precisely  alike.  For  a  time  Captain 
Nat,  being  tired,  wrote  such  entries  as  the  following : 

"Tuesday,  December  19th,  1820 
"Commences  pleasant  strong  gales  from  S  W 

"Wednesday,  December  20th. 
"Commences  moderate  light  breeze  from  south." 

On  Christmas  day  the  entry  made  was: 

"Monday  25th 
"Commences  with  heavy  gales  from  N  E  with 
snow." 

Thereafter  each  day's  entry  ran  in  similar  fashion 
until  February  19th,  when  he  wrote: 

"Friday  19th." 

That  and  nothing  more.  Then  for  three  days 
there  was  no  entry  whatever,  but  on  the  fourth  day 
he  began  to  write  up  the  log  in  shipshape  fashion 
once  more,  because  on  that  day  he  cleared  the  har- 
bor and  sailed  for  home. 

And  yet,  during  this  interval  of  slack  log  writing 
Captain  Palmer  had  been  ordered  to  go  a  second 
time  in  search  of  other  seal  islands  and  while  he 
was  thus  engaged  he  had  discovered  that  part  of 
the  Antarctic  Continent  to  which  his  name  was 
given,  and  he  cruised  along  the  coast  to  68  degrees 
south  latitude — or  more  than  200  miles  from 
Yankee  Harbor. 


CHAPTER  VI 

EXPLORING  THE  ANTARCTIC   COAST 

TWO  accounts  of  the  incidents  which  led  to 
the  sending  of  the  Hero  on  an  exploring 
expedition  along  the  coast  of  the  Antarctic 
Continent  have  been  printed.  One  is  to  be  found 
In  Edmund  Fannlng's  "Voyages  Round  the  World," 
and  the  other  in  "Stonlngton  Antarctic  Explorers," 
by  Edwin  Swift  Balch.  Fanning  says  (p.  435)  that 
"from  Captain  Pendleton's  report,  as  rendered^' 
on  the  return  of  the  fleet  to  Stonlngton,  "it  appeared 
that  while  the  fleet  lay  at  anchor  in  Yankee  Harbor, 
Deception  Island,  during  the  season  of  1820-21, 
being  on  the  lookout  from  an  elevated  station,  on 
the  mountains  of  the  island,  during  a  very  clear  day, 
he  had  discovered  mountains  (one  a  volcano)  in 
the  south.  This  is  what  is  now  known  by  the  name 
of  Palmer  Land." 

In  the  other  account  it  is  said  that  young  Palmer 
first  saw  the  land  and  the  captain's  niece,  still  living, 
remembers  hearing  him  say  definitely  that  he  thus 
saw  the  land.  Some  writers  have  thought  the  two 
accounts  contradictory,  but  they  are  not  necessarily 
so.    The  facts  In  the  case  seem  to  be  as  follows : 

The  rookery  at  President  Harbor  was  being 
64 


Exploring  the  Antarctic  Coast  6^ 

depleted  rapidly.  The  decrease  naturally  led  all  the 
captains  of  the  vessels  In  Yankee  Harbor  to  talk 
about  a  search  for  another  rookery,  and  this  search 
seemed  to  be  all  the  more  needed,  as  time  passed 
and  competing  vessels  gathered  the  skins  from  other 
known  rookeries.  All  the  other  known  rookeries 
were.  In  fact,  occupied  by  sealers.  It  was  therefore 
decided  that  Captain  Palmer  should  make  another 
cruise  with  the  Hero.  It  was  for  such  work  that  the 
sloop  had  been  brought. 

Before  going  on  such  a  cruise  it  was  natural  that 
Palmer  should  go  up  to  the  highest  point  on  the  wall 
of  the  old  crater,  at  a  time  when  the  air  was  per- 
fectly clear.  In  order  to  see  If  any  other  Islands  were 
visible.  It  was  also  natural  that  Captain  Pendleton 
should  go.  The  direct  statement  that  the  young 
captain  went  Is  to  be  believed  because  he  was  known 
to  be  unusually  farslghted.  Throughout  his  life  he 
was  able  to  distinguish  objects  at  much  greater  dis- 
tances than  ordinary  seamen.  At  the  same  time 
there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  the  statement  that 
Pendleton  went.  It  Is  easy  to  believe  that  both 
Pendleton  and  Palmer  went  together,  and  when 
Pendleton  made  his  report  at  Stonlngton  he  Inad- 
vertently omitted  to  mention  that  Palmer  went  with 
him. 

On  reaching  the  high  point  on  Deception  Island 
the  southern  horizon  was  examined — the  southern 
because  the  fleet  had  been  working  around  all  the 
islands  at  the  north.    So  the  loom  of  land  was  seen 


66  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

in  the  far  south  with  what  looked  like  an  active 
volcano,  and  the  Hero  was  thereupon  ordered  to 
sail  away  and  learn  if  any  seals  were  to  be  found 
there. 

Copies  of  two  entries  in  the  log  of  Captain 
Pendleton's  brig  Frederick  are  among  the  records 
now  to  be  found  at  Stonington.  They  are  as  fol- 
lows : 

"Jan'y  14,  1821.  Sloop  Hero,  Capt.  N.  B. 
Palmer,  sailed  to  eastward  to  look  for  more  Is'ds." 

''Jan'y  28th,  /21.  6  A  M  the  sloop  came  in  after 
examining  northeast  and  southwest  to  their  satisfac- 
tion.    Found  none." 

It  was  therefore  on  January  14  that  Captain 
Palmer  sailed  from  Yankee  Harbor  on  the  voyage 
which  was  to  place  him  beside  Columbus  in  so  far 
as  he  and  Columbus  were  the  only  known  men  who 
have  discovered  continents ;  for  the  name  of  the  man 
who  discovered  Australia  is  not  known. 

To  appreciate  the  dangers  of  the  voyage  upon 
which  the  captain  was  bound  it  is  only  needful  to 
recall  the  fact  that  he  was  under  orders  to  explore 
a  region,  to  the  east  as  well  as  the  south,  which  had 
never  been  visited  by  men;  that  he  was  to  work  his 
way  among  floating  fields  of  ice  and  uncharted  reefs; 
that  hurricane  squalls  with  blinding  snows  were  sure 
to  overtake  him  at  frequent  intervals,  and  that  if 
the  Hero  were  pinched  between  icefloes  or  stranded 
on  the  rocks  there  was  no  hope  of  a  rescuing  party 


Exploring  the  Antarctic  Coast  S7 

ever  finding  the  wreck.  But  Palmer  and  his  men 
faced  the  dangers  with  insouciant  minds  and  even 
with  pleasure.  They  were  thrilled  with  a  feeling 
that  is  now  lost  because  there  is  but  little  of  the 
world  left  to  explore. 

Of  this  remarkable  expedition  it  appears  that  no 
account  was  ever  written  by  a  member  of  the  Heroes 
crew;  or  if  one  was  so  written  in  the  back  of  the 
log  book,  as  has  been  surmised,  it  was  torn  out 
and  destroyed.  But  on  his  return  to  Yankee  Har- 
bor, Captain  Palmer  told  the  commodore  and  other 
captains  what  had  occurred.  After  he  returned 
home  he  also  related  his  story  to  his  family  and 
friends.  In  later  years,  when  he  was  in  command 
of  the  clipper  Howqua,  in  Hong  Kong,  China,  he 
was  invited  to  tell  the  story  to  Admiral  Sir  John 
Francis  Austin,  at  the  American  consulate;  for 
the  admiral  had  observed  that  the  arm-chair 
geographers  of  Europe  were  disposed  to  ignore 
Palmer's  exploration  and  with  a  sailor's  love  of  fair 
play  he  asked  the  captain  for  the  facts  in  the  case. 

The  various  accounts  which  the  captain  thus  gave 
were  in  several  instances  written  down  by  those  who 
heard  them.  Consul  Frederick  T.  Bush,  of  Hong 
Kong,  wrote  what  he  heard,  and  his  version  was 
later  printed  in  a  New  London  paper.  Edmund 
Fanning  wrote  the  story  as  he  gathered  it  from 
Commodore  Pendleton  after  the  expedition  re- 
turned home.  When,  beginning  in  1828,  an  effort 
was  made  to  induce  Congress  to  send  a  naval  explor- 


68  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

ing  expedition  to  the  far  South  and  the  Pacific  (an 
effort  which  eventually  resulted  in  the  Wilkes  expe- 
dition), Mr.  J.  N.  Reynolds,  an  active  promoter 
of  the  movement,  gathered  and  wrote  an  account 
which  he  used  in  his  propaganda.  This  one  was 
printed  in  the  Army  and  Naval  Chronicle^  Vol.  III. 
Another  account  appeared  in  the  North  American 
Review  in  1834.  Each  of  these  versions  inevitably 
contains  some  statements  not  found  in  the  others, 
and  the  whole  have  therefore  been  combined  here 
to  give  the  story  In  as  full  detail  as  possible. 

When  describing  his  adventure  to  Admiral  Austin 
the  captain  said: 

"I  pointed  the  bow  of  the  little  craft  to  south'ard 
and  with  her  wings  spread,  the  mainsail  abeam,  and 
the  jib  abreast  (on)  the  opposite  bow,  she  speeded 
on  her  way  like  a  thing  of  life  and  light.  With  her 
flowing  sheet  she  seemed  to  enter  into  the  spirit 
which  possessed  my  ambitions,  and  flew  along  until 
she  brought  me  into  the  sight  of  land  not  laid  down 
on  my  chart." 

The  tops  of  two  mountains  were  first  seen,  and 
then  lower  land,  trending  away  in  both  directions, 
appeared  as  the  Hero  drew  near.  The  highest  peak, 
named  Mount  Hope  by  explorer  Wilkes,  was  in 
latitude  63°  25'  S  and  longitude  57°  55'  west.  It 
was  a  rugged,  verdureless  land,  with  bare  rocks  and 
glaciers  mingled  every^vhere  within  view — a  most 
desolate  region,  and  yet,  as  seen  when  the  sun  was 


Exploring  the  Antarctic  Coast  69 

shining,  with  the  green  waters  along  shore  dotted 
with  gleaming  ice  cakes,  and  with  the  air  filled  with 
thousands  of  gray  and  black  petrels  and  white  cape 
pigeons,  it  was  strikingly  beautiful. 

Fanning's  account  of  what  Palmer  thus  observed 
is  as  follows : 

"He  found  it  to  be  an  extensive  mountainous 
country,  more  sterile  and  dismal,  if  possible,  and 
more  heavily  loaded  with  ice  and  snow  than  the 
South  Shetlands;  there  were  sea  leopards  on  its 
shore  but  no  fur  seals;  the  main  part  of  the  coast 
was  icebound,  although  it  was  in  the  midsummer 
of  this  hemisphere,  and  a  landing  consequently 
difficult." 

So  far  as  the  weather  was  concerned  the  young 
Captain  had  much  better  fortune  than  he  had  any 
reason  to  expect;  but  the  fogs  were  frequently  so 
thick  that  he  was  obliged  to  lay  to  at  midday  and 
wait  until  they  thinned  away  lest  he  strike  the  ice  or 
a  reef.  And  it  was  because  of  the  prevailing  fog 
that  he  had  one  of  the  most  startling  experiences 
recorded  in  the  histories  of  the  explorers. 

The  Hero,  in  her  return,  had  left  Mount  Hope 
on  the  north  point  of  the  mainland  astern,  late  one 
afternoon,  when  a  fog,  so  dense  that  the  man  at 
the  tiller  could  not  see  the  man  on  lookout  at  the 
bow,  shut  her  in.  She  was  then  hove  to  in  the  usual 
course — the  sails  were  arranged  so  that  she  would 
make  as  little  headway  as  possible — and  then  all 


70  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

hands  settled  down  with  such  patience  as  they  could 
summon,  to  await  the  coming  of  the  next  day.  Al- 
though the  breeze  was  light  and  the  sloop  drifted 
but  slowly  before  it,  the  captain  and  his  mate  (Mr. 
Phineas  Wilcox)  kept  vigilant  watch  all  night  for  a 
change  in  the  weather  as  well  as  for  rocks  and  ice. 
The  men  (there  were  six  before  the  mast)  were 
placed  on  lookout  at  the  bow  and  waist  while  the 
officers  paced  the  quarterdeck. 

At  12  o'clock  that  night  Captain  Nat  came  on 
deck  to  relieve  Mate  Wilcox.  The  captain  paced 
the  deck,  as  all  ship  officers  do  when  on  watch  at 
night,  until  12.30  when  he  struck  the  sloop's  bell 
a  single  tap.  It  was  a  part  of  the  regular  routine 
which  had  been  followed  ever  since  Stonington  had 
been  left  astern. 

But  when  the  sound  of  the  ball  rang  through  the 
fog,  an  answering  stroke  was  heard  off  one  bow 
with  a  second  one  off  the  opposite  quarter. 

"The  response  startled  me,"  said  the  Captain, 
when  relating  the  story  in  Hong  Kong,  "but  I  soon 
resumed  my  pace,  turned  my  thoughts  homeward 
and  applied  myself  to  building  castles  in  the  air," 
until  one  o'clock.  Then  he  "struck  two  bells  that 
were   answered"   as  before. 

"I  could  not  credit  my  ears,"  declared  the  Cap- 
tain. "I  thought  I  was  dreaming,"  because,  "save 
for  the  screeching  of  the  penguins,  the  albatrosses, 
the  pigeons  and  the  Mother  Cary  chickens,  I  was 


Exploring  the  Antarctic  Coast  71 

sure  no  living  object  was  within  leagues  of  the 
sloop." 

The  sailors,  being  more  superstitious,  believed  the 
sounds  were  of  supernatural  origin,  and  even  Mate 
Wilcox  expressed  the  same  idea  when  he  declared 
the  sounds  were  "tricky."  To  the  sailors  the 
sounds  were  not  a  little  fearsome  and  to  all  very 
mystifying. 

At  3.30  o'clock  the  mate  came  on  deck  and  as- 
serted that  he  heard  human  voices.  A  little  later 
the  fog  suddenly  cleared  away,  when  the  mystery 
was  solved;  for  a  fine  frigate  was  seen  off  the  sloop's 
starboard  bow,  a  sloop  of  war  off  the  port  quarter, 
and  a  ship's  cutter,  full-manned  and  under  the  com- 
mand of  an  officer  in  uniform,  was  soon  seen  coming 
to  the  Hero. 

Meantime  Captain  Palmer  made  haste  to  hoist 
the  Stars  and  Stripes,  and  the  two  warships  then 
displayed  the  Russian  flag. 

When  the  cutter  arrived  beside  the  sloop  the 
officer  in  command  stepped  on  deck  and  explained 
how  it  happened  he  had  come.  The  two  warships, 
he  said,  had  been  sent  out  by  the  Czar  of  Russia 
to  explore  the  seas  of  the  far  South;  and  while 
sailing  to  the  westward  they  had  been  compelled 
by  the  fog  to  lie  to.  The  bell  of  the  sloop  had  been 
heard  on  the  warships  and  when  the  fog  had  lifted 
the  cutter  had  been  ordered  to  learn  what  vessel 
it  was  from  which  the  sound  had  come.    The  com- 


72  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

manding  officer,  Capt.  F.  G.  von  Bellingshausen, 
he  continued,  presented  his  compliments  and  begged 
the  pleasure  of  meeting  the  captain  of  the  sloop 
in  the  cabin  of  His  Imperial  Majesty's  frigate 
Rostock. 

"I  assented,"  said  Captain  Palmer,  in  his  Hong 
Kong  narrative  of  the  incident.  "I  at  once  entered 
the  boat,  was  laid  alongside,  mounted  to  the  deck, 
and  I  was  ushered  into  the  presence  of  the  venerable 
commander." 

The  scene  as  that  young  Yankee  captain  entered 
the  cabin  of  the  frigate  might  well  be  reproduced 
by  an  artist  of  talent.  For  the  captain  of  the  frigate 
was  seated  at  a  table  with  a  group  of  his  officers, 
all  in  brilliant  uniform,  around  him,  while  the  young 
sealer,  smooth-faced,  tall  and  slender,  was  dressed 
in  a  seal-skin  coat  and  boots  of  his  own  make,  and 
he  had  a  sou'wester  on  his  head.  To  the  naval 
officers  the  boy  certainly  was  a  bizarre  figure.  But 
when  they  looked  into  his  far-seeing  eyes  they  per- 
ceived that  he  was  unabashed  and  fully  able  to  meet 
them  as  man  to  man. 

The  captain  of  the  frigate  (he  was  made  an  ad- 
miral on  his  return  home  and  is  so  called  in  the 
various  narratives  of  this  incident)  arose  to  greet 
Captain  Palmer,  shook  his  hand,  ordered  a  chair 
placed    for   him   and  then   said: 

"You  are  welcome,  young  man.     Be  seated." 

The  conversation  which  followed  was  as  follows, 
so  far  as  remembered: 


Exploring  the  Antarctic  Coast  73 

"What  is  your  name?'* 

"Nathaniel  Palmer." 

"Where  you  are  from?" 

"Stonington,   Connecticut,  U.   S.  A." 

"The  name  of  your  boat?" 

''Heror 

"What  are  you  doing  here?" 

"On  a  sealing  expedition.  A  fleet  from  Stoning- 
ton  is  at  work  among  the  islands,  here." 

"What  islands  are  those  in  sight?" 

"The  South  Shetlands;  and  if  you  wish  to  visit 
any  of  them  in  particular  it  will  afford  me  pleasure 
to  be  your  pilot;  for  I  am  well  acquainted  with 
them." 

He  also  mentioned  the  harbor  where  the  sealing 
vessels  were  at  anchor  and  added  that  water  with 
an  abundant  supply  of  wildfowl  might  be  obtained 
anywhere  among  the  islands. 

"I  thank  you,"  continued  the  captain,  "but  pre- 
vious to  our  being  enveloped  in  the  fog  we  had  a 
glimpse  of  those  islands,  and  concluded  we  had 
made  a  discovery;  but  behold,  when  the  fog  lifts, 
to  my  great  surprise,  here  is  an  American  vessel, 
apparently  in  as  fine  order  as  if  it  were  but  yesterday 
she  had  left  the  United  States;  not  only  this  but 
her  master  is  ready  to  pilot  my  ships  into  port, 
where  several  of  his  own  nation  lie  at  anchor.  We 
must  surrender  the  palm  of  enterprise  to  you  Ameri- 
cans, and  content  ourselves  with  following  in  your 


74  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

''You  flatter  me,"  replied  the  captain,  "but  there 
is  an  immense  extent  of  land  still  further  south; 
and  when  the  fog  there  is  entirely  dissipated  you 
may  have  a  full  view  of  it  from  your  masthead." 

"How  far  south  have  you  been?"  asked  tthe 
captain. 

Captain  Palmer  told  him  the  latitude  and  longi- 
tude of  the  point  at  which  the  Hero  turned  back 
and  described  the  coast  along  which  she  had  sailed. 

"Indeed!"  exclaimed  the  Russian.  "Then  I  am 
entirely  anticipated  in  my  object." 

He  now  arose  much  agitated  and  begged  Captain 
Palmer  to  produce  the  Heroes  log  book  and  chart. 
Palmer  at  once  sent  to  the  sloop  for  them.  While 
waiting  for  the  messenger  to  return,  breakfast  was 
served,  with  Palmer  seated  at  the  side  of  the  Russian 
captain.  While  they  were  at  the  table  many  ques- 
tions were  asked  about  the  seal  fishery,  the  ports 
of  the  South  Shetlands,  the  hailing  port  of  the  seal- 
ing fleet  and  about  the  character  of  the  vessels 
themselves. 

The  Heroes  log  and  chart  arrived  while  the  two 
were  yet  at  the  table,  and  were  placed  before  the 
Russian  captain.  For  a  time  he  examined  them 
without  saying  anything.  Then  he  arose  from  the 
table  and  exclaimed. 

"What  do  I  see  and  what  do  I  hear  from  a  boy 
in  his  teens?  That  he  is  commander  of  a  tiny 
boat  of  the  size  of  the  launch  of  my  frigate,  in 
which  he  has  pushed  his  way  to  the  pole  through 


Exploring  the  Antarctic  Coast  75 

storm  and  Ice;  has  sought  and  found  the  point  I, 
in  command  of  one  of  the  best  appointed  fleets  at 
the  disposal  of  my  august  master,  have  for  three 
long  weary  years  searched  day  and  night  for." 

Then,  placing  his  hand  on  Palmer's  head  he 
continued : 

"What  shall  I  say  to  my  master?  What  will  he 
think  of  me?  But  be  that  as  it  may,  my  grief  is 
your  joy.  Wear  your  laurels  with  my  sincere 
prayers  for  your  welfare.  I  name  the  land  you  have 
discovered  in  honor  of  yourself,  noble  boy,  Palmer 
Land." 


CHAPTER  VII 

EUROPEAN  EXPLORERS  AMONG  THE  SHETLANDS 

IN  this  search  for  new  seal  rookeries  upon  the 
shore  of  the  Antarctic  Continent,  Captain  Pal- 
mer had  first  crossed  a  space  of  open  sea  that  is 
seventy  miles  wide.  This  brought  him  to  a  north- 
erly extension  of  the  continent  on  which  Is  located 
the  volcano  Mount  Hope,  visible  from  Deception 
Island.  When  there  he  found  the  trend  of  the  land 
was,  as  said,  to  the  southwest  and  he  therefore 
headed  In  that  direction,  keeping  near  the  beach  so 
that  he  could  see  the  seals  If  any  were  to  be  found 
there.  Bays,  fiords  and  islands  were  observed  along 
the  way,  and  each  was  carefully  examined  for  fur. 
Numbers  of  the  leopard  seal  were  seen  but  none  of 
any  other  variety.  As  soon  as  he  had  determined 
that  a  beach  carried  no  fur  seals,  Captain  Palmer 
sailed  on  without  giving  any  attention  to  any  other 
feature  of  it.  He  was  aware  that  he  was  coasting 
land  never  visited  by  man  before,  but  he  did  not 
know  it  was  of  continental  dimensions.  In  fact, 
the  dimensions  of  the  lands  he  discovered  were  not 
definitely  or  even  approximately  learned  until  it  had 
been  explored  by  Larsen,  in  1893;  Nordenskjold  In 
1903  and  Charcot  In  1910. 

76 


European  Explorers  Among  the  Shetlands       77 

To  the  young  captain  the  land  seemed  simply  an 
unexplored  island  of  large  size,  or  perhaps  a  group 
of  islands,  connected  by  ice,  and  so  it  was  supposed 
to  be  while  he  lived.  Because  he  was  looking  for 
seal  rookeries  and  nothing  else,  the  land  had  no 
further  interest  after  he  learned  that  no  seals  re- 
sorted to  the  beaches. 

As  his  cruise  is  now  recalled,  one  is  prone  to 
imagine  that  he  should  have  made  a  careful  survey 
of  the  coast  line  simply  because  it  had  never  been 
seen  by  human  beings  before.  But  the  fact  is  there 
was  no  inducement  impelling  him  to  do  so.  For 
the  mere  discovery  of  unexplored  islands  was  then 
such  an  ordinary  experience  among  American  sailors 
of  the  sail  that  little  attention  was  given  to  any 
new  coast  unless  it  afforded  a  prospect  for  profit- 
able exploitation.  It  is  literally  true  that  sighting 
new  islands  in  the  Pacific  was  a  common  experience 
among  American  whalers.  Captain  William  Smith, 
who  rediscovered  the  islands  first  seen  by  Dirk 
Gherritz,  was  knighted,  but  if  every  Yankee  skipper 
who  discovered  an  island  theretofore  unknown  had 
been  thus  rewarded  the  American  corps  of  knights 
would  have  far  exceeded  the  English  in  number; 
for  hundreds  of  islands,  including  atols,  were  found 
and  charted  by  the  whalers  of  that  period.  The 
coasting  of  the  Antarctic  Continent  was  really  less 
interesting  to  the  crew  of  the  Hero  than  their  pre- 
vious cruise  among  the  Shetlands  had  been,  because 
in  the  Shetlands  several  rookeries  were  found.    For 


78  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

these  men  were  all  sealers  and  not  surveyors  or 
scientists. 

Having  cruised  for  at  least  150  miles  along  the 
new  land — the  longitude  attained  was  68  degrees 
south — Captain  Palmer  came  to  impenetrable  ice 
and  turned  back.  The  weather  was  fairly  favor- 
able— no  worse  than  that  experienced  among  the 
Shetlands.  To  Captain  Palmer  it  did  not  seem  as 
dangerous  as  it  really  was.  The  fact  that  he  had 
sailed  more  than  200  miles  from  his  friends  in 
Yankee  Harbor,  and  that  any  disaster  to  the  sloop 
when  far  away  would  have  left  him  and  his  crew 
to  perish  miserably  did  not  impress  him. 

In  his  work  on  exploration  in  the  far  South,  en- 
titled "Antarctica,"  Edwin  Swift  Balch  writes  as 
follows  (p.  94),  about  the  work  of  Captain 
Palmer : 

"The  account  by  Fanning  of  Palmer's  first  two 
voyages  and  the  chart  and  memoir  of  1822  of 
George  Powell  make  it  fairly  certain: — i,  that 
Palmer  was  probably  the  discoverer  and  certainly 
the  first  explorer  of  the  lands  lying  south  of  Brans- 
field  Strait  and  extending  for  some  two  hundred 
and  fifty  kilometers  between  about  57°  50'  and  62° 
20'  west  longitude,  that  is,  of  the  northern  coasts 
of  West  Antarctica  from  Liege  Island  to  Joinville 
Island  both  inclusive: — 2,  that  Palmer  discovered 
the  northern  end  of  Gerlache  Strait,  which  he  recog- 
nized was  a  strait  and  not  a  bay  as  subsequently 


European  Explorers  Among  the  Shetlands        79 

charted: — 3,  that  Palmer  discovered  the  strait  or 
bay  since  called  Orleans  Channel: — 4,  that  Palmer 
recognized  that  these  lands  were  perhaps  a  chain 
of  islands: — 5,  that  this  coast  or  these  islands  were 
christened  Palmer  Land  and  that  they  were  so  first 
charted  in  England,  France  and  America.'* 

A  copy  of  Powell's  Chart  is  printed  In  connection 
with  this  quotation.  The  title  of  the  chart  is: 
"Chart  of  South  Shetland,  including  Coronation 
Island,  &c.,  from  the  Exploration  of  the  Sloop  Dove 
in  the  years  1821  and  1822.  George  Powell,  Com- 
mander of  the  same.  Published  by  R.  H.  Laurie, 
Chart  Seller  to  the  Admiralty,  &c.,  &c..  No.  53 
Fleet  Street,  London,  Nov'r  ist,  1822."  A  mem- 
oir, written  by  Powell,  accompanied  the  chart.  In 
this  Captain  Powell  said  (quoted  by  Balch)  : 

"Of  the  land  to  the  southward,  called  Palmer 
Land,  very  little  can  be  said,  as  it  does  not  appear 
to  be  sufficiently  explored;  but  it  has  been  described 
as  very  high  and  covered  with  snow,  with  inlets 
forming  straits  which  may  probably  separate  the 
land,  and  constitute  a  range  of  islands  similar  to 
those  of  South  Shetland;  at  least,  such  Is  the  ap- 
pearance of  the  northern  side,  which  alone  has  been 
explored." 

Powell's  chart  Is  of  special  Interest  here  because 
In  later  years  Palmer's  work  as  an  explorer  was 
either  wholly  ignored  by  British  geographers  or 
it  was  discredited.     For  example  Findlay's  "Sailing 


8o  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

Directions"  for  the  South  Atlantic  (issued  in  1883), 
a  standard  work  for  the  use  of  shipmasters,  gives 
several  pages  to  descriptions  of  the  South  Shetlands 
and  the  adjacent  coast,  but  makes  no  mention  of 
Palmer  or  Palmer  Land.  He  does  mention  the 
American   sealers,   however — as   follows: 

"Several  United  States  vessels  have  visited  South 
Shetland,  and  an  American  account  states  that  some 
of  the  harbours  are  very  good,  vessels  in  them 
being  landlocked.  .  .  .  Capt.  Dan  W.  Clark,  of 
the  ship  Hersilia  (an  American),  reported  that 
he  penetrated  to  the  66th  degree  of  latitude,  where 
he  observed  lands  stretching  further  to  the  south, 
the   extremities  of  which  he  could  not  ascertain." 

If  this  quotation  is  considered  in  connection  with 
the  actual  explorations  of  the  region  made  by  the 
men  from  Stonington,  the  extent  of  Findlay's  knowl- 
edge of  the  region  will  be  fully  comprehended. 

To  Illustrate  still  further  the  former  attitude  of 
the  British  geographers  it  seems  advisable  to  quote 
an  essay  on  Antarctic  exploration  which  was  written 
by  Major  General  A.  W.  Greely  for  the  American 
Geographic  Magazine  (March,  19 12),  in  which 
the  following  appeared: 

"Dr.  Hugh  Robert  Hill  in  his  generally  accurate 
and  fair-minded  'Siege  of  the  South  Pole,'  1905, 
unfortunately  follows  the  British  attitude  of  in- 
directly discrediting  Palmer's  story  as  to  the  Rus- 


European  Explorers  Among  the  Shetlands       8i 

sian  admiral,  saying  (page  lOo),  'It  seems  strange 
that  if  informed  of  the  whereabouts  of  Palmer 
Land,  he  (Bellingshausen)  made  no  reference  to 
that  fact  in  his  own  book.' 

''However,  Dr.  Heinryk  Arctowski,  a  Belgian 
professor,  a  Russian  scholar,  and  an  Antarctic 
explorer  and  expert,  supports  Palmer  by  a  citation. 
In  'The  Antarctic  Voyage  of  the  Belgica'  (in  the 
Geographical  Journal,  1901,  18:353-394),  Arc- 
towski states  that  'this  meeting  [the  meeting  be- 
tween Palmer  and  Bellingshausen]  was  also  de- 
scribed by  Bellingshausen  himself,  as  can  easily  be 
seen  by  consulting  the  remarkable  but  little  known 
work  of  that  eminent  Russian  explorer." 

Bellingshausen's  work  has  appeared  in  Russian 
only.  The  title  is:  "Dwukratnya  isiskania  w' 
Jujnom  Ledowitom  Okeanje  i  plawanie  wokrug 
swjeta,  &c. ;  St.  Petersburg,  1831."  The  account  of 
the  meeting  with  Captain  Palmer  appears  in  Vol- 
ume 2,  pages  261-264.     (See  Balch's  "Antarctica.") 

Greely  adds  that  "it  is  to  be  regretted  that  Dr. 
Hill  failed  to  verify"  the  quotation  from  Bellings- 
hausen's work. 

Greely  also  calls  attention  to  the  eleventh  edition 
of  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica  which  was  "specially 
Americanized"  in  order  to  promote  sales  in  the 
United  States.  He  notes  that  "it  admits  in  two 
lines  that  'Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer  discovered  the 
mountainous  archipelago  which  now  bears  his  name.' 


82  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

It  then  proceeds  to  give  a  column  regarding  John 
Biscoe." 

Palmer's  discovery  of  the  land  came  to  be  ignored 
and  discredited,  later,  because  of  two  explorations 
made  by  the  British — one  by  Commander  Henry 
Foster,  R.  N.,  of  the  sloop  of  war  Chanticleer,  and 
the  other  by  Captain  John  Biscoe,  who  had  been  a 
master  in  the  navy  but  was  in  the  employ  of 
London  merchants  when  he  went  to  the  South 
Shetlands. 

Foster  was  the  first  of  the  two  to  go  there.  He 
had  been  detailed  by  the  Admiralty  to  survey  parts 
of  the  Cape  Horn  region.  While  at  anchor  off 
Port  Hatches,  Staten  Island,  in  a  bad  seaway,  he 
was  seen  by  Captain  Alexander  Palmer  (brother 
of  Captain  Nat),  and  piloted  to  a  safe  anchorage 
inside;  for  Captain  Alexander  was  sealing  there  at 
the  time. 

As  Captain  Foster  and  Captain  Alex  were  both 
of  an  adventurous  disposition  they  soon  became 
friends,  in  spite  of  the  natural  attitude  of  naval 
officers  toward  fishermen.  Captain  Al.ex  guided 
Foster  to  various  heights  of  land  from  which  good 
views  of  the  coasts  and  the  islands  off  shore  were 
to  be  seen,  and  he  fully  described  the  waters  as  he 
had  learned  them  while  working  the  beaches  for 
furs.  Further  than  that,  he  told  Captain  Foster  all 
about  the  South  Shetlands  and  especially  about 
Yankee  Harbor  as  a  port  of  refuge.  Captain 
Foster  was  thus  greatly  aided,  of  course,  when  he 


EuTope^an  Explorers  Among  the  Shetlands       83 

went,  later,  to  that  harbor  to  make  a  survey  of  the 
archipelago. 

Before  leaving.  Captain  Foster  wrote  the  follow- 
ing letter  of  acknowledgement  which  is  still  pre- 
served among  the  records  at  Stonington: 

"These  are  to  certify  [by]  the  principal  officers 
and  commissioners  of  his  Majesty's  Navy  that  Mr. 
Alexander  S.  Palmer,  master  of  the  American  seal- 
ing schooner  the  Penguin,  pilotted  His  Majesty's 
sloop  under  my  command,  from  her  anchorage  off 
Dead  Man's  Island  (Staten  Island),  the  26th  day 
of  October,  1828,  to  the  harbour  of  North  Port 
Hatchet  (Staten  Island),  where  he  this  day  left  her 
moored  in  perfect  safety.  Given  under  my  hand 
on  board  His  Majesty's  sloop  Chanticleer,  at  North 
Port  Hatchet,  Staten  Island,  the  28th  day  of  Oc- 
tober,   1828. 

"Henry  Foster,  Commander." 

From  Captain  Alexander  Palmer,  Commander 
Foster  learned,  as  said,  all  that  an  InteDigent  and 
experienced  sealer  could  tell  him  about  the  South 
Shetlands  and  the  various  harbors  there.  Follow- 
ing the  directions  given  him.  Commander  Foster 
went  in  the  Chanticleer  to  Yankee  Harbor,  where 
he  set  up  various  instruments  on  shore  and  made 
a  considerable  survey  of  the  entire  region,  includ- 
ing a  part  of  Palmer  Land. 

The  surgeon  of  the  Chanticleer,  Dr.  W.  H.  R. 
Webster,  wrote  an  account  of  the  work  done  in  3 


84  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

book  entitled,  "Narrative  of  a  Voyage,"  &c.,  in 
which  he  mentions  the  help  received  from  Captain 
Alexander  Palmer,  but  not  a  word  is  said  by  him, 
or  in  Foster's  report  to  the  Admiralty,  about  the 
explorations  made  by  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown 
Palmer.*  The  chart  made  by  Foster  renames 
Palmer  Land.  But  when  Foster  wrote  a  report  of 
what  he  had  done  there,  he  omitted  to  give  Captain 
Nat  Palmer  credit  for  exploring  the  coast  of  the 
continent  and  he  did  not  use  the  name  Palmer  Land. 

Later,  two  London  ship  owners,  of  whom  one 
was  an  enthusiastic  member  of  the  Royal  Geographic 
Society,  sent  a  ship  under  the  command  of  Captain 
John  Biscoe,  mentioned  above,  to  make  further  ex- 
plorations. Biscoe  sailed  southwesterly  to  latitude 
67°  i'  south,  and  longitude  71°  48'  west  of  Green- 
wich. In  his  report  he  wrote  that  he  had  skirted 
"a  chain  of  islands,  extending  E.  N.  E.  and  W. 
S.  W.,  and  fronting  high  continuous  land." 

Findlay's  "Sailing  Directions"  says  this  chain  of 
islands  "is  unquestionably  the  same  which  is  marked 
in  the  old  charts  by  the  name  of  Gherritz  Land,  it 
having  been  discovered  in  1599  by  Dirk  Gherritz." 

That  is  to  say,  Biscoe  reported  the  South  Shet- 
lands  as  a  new  discovery.  Nevertheless  the  name 
which  Biscoe  gave  to  Palmer  Land — he  called  it 
Graham  Land — was  used  thereafter  on  English 
charts. 

*  Foster  was  drowned  in  the  Chagres  River  on  his  way  home 
from  the  far  South. 


Europ^^an  Explorers  Among  the  Shetlands       85 

As  Greely  says,  all  this  matter  is  to  be  regretted. 
One  may  add  that  it  is  to  be  especially  regretted 
that  the  publishers  of  the  Encyclopaedia  supposed 
their  two-line  reference  to  Palmer  would  promote 
sales  of  their  work  among  intelligent  people  in  this 
country. 

But  if  the  British  attitude  be  considered  without 
prejudice  it  is  found  to  be  easily  understandable. 
Note  first  that  the  two  British  surveyors  of  the 
region  had  had  naval  training;  in  connection  with 
that  fact  recall  the  attitude  of  all  British  naval  offi- 
cers of  that  period  toward  their  own  merchant  sail- 
ors as  well  as  toward  others.  Their  merchant 
captains,  as  Lindsay  describes  them  in  detail  in  Vol. 
Ill,  Chap.  I,  of  his  "History  of  Merchant  Ship- 
ping," were,  as  a  class,  ignorant  drunkards  and 
generally  detestable.  Lindsay's  showing  is  quite  re- 
markable, and  it  fully  explains  the  contempt  which 
the  officers  of  the  Royal  Navy  felt  for  all  merchant 
seamen — for  of  course  they  could  not  believe  Ameri- 
can merchantmen  superior  to  their  own. 

Since  Palmer  was  a  sealer,  and  so  was  classed 
with  the  fishermen  in  the  thoughts  of  both  Foster 
and  Biscoe,  it  is  not  a  matter  of  great  wonder  that 
they  entirely  ignored  him  in  their  reports  of  their 
own  surveys.  It  may  seem  a  little  remarkable  that 
they  should  also  have  ignored  Powell's  chart  of 
Palmer  Land,  but  Powell  was  also  a  sealer — one 
of  a  contemptible  class,  in  the  naval  view — and 
names  bestowed  on  lands  by  such  as  he  were  not  to 


86  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

be  respected  by  any  British  naval  surveyor  of  that 
day! 

Even  the  regrettable  misstatement  made  by  Dr. 
Mills  should  be  overlooked  because  elsewhere  in 
his  book  he  says: 

"As  a  matter  of  historic  justice  it  seems  to  us 
that  Powell's  name  of  Palmer  Land  ought  to  be 
retained."     (Quoted  by  Greely.) 

In  order  that  justice  be  done  the  memory  of  Cap- 
tain Palmer  it  is  of  importance  only  that  his  work 
should  be  accurately  described.  This  was  the  view 
of  General  Greely  and  it  is  that  of  all  other  Ameri- 
cans who  have  made  a  study  of  Antarctic  explora- 
tion. To  this  General  Greely,  in  the  essay  quoted 
above,  added  the  following: 

''Has  not  the  time  arrived  when  this  glorious 
phase  of  American  maritime  history  should  receive 
full  national  recognition?  Every  textbook  teach- 
ing polar  geography  should  contain  the  statement 
that  the  American  Captain,  N.  B.  Palmer,  first  dis- 
covered parts  of  the  continent  of  Antarctica,  and  on 
every  official  soufeh-polar  map  should  be  replaced 
Palmer  Land.  ...  It  is  therefore  the  duty  of  the 
120,000  members  of  the  National  Geographic 
Society  to  create  a  public  sentiment  that  shall  honor 
in  our  literature  and  in  our  history  the  achievements 
of  Nathaniel  B.  Palmer  and  Charles  Wilkes." 


CHAPTER  VIII 

SUPERIOR  WORK   OF   THE   STONINGTON  MEN 

IT  was  at  6  A.  M.,  on  January  28,  that  Captain 
Palmer  arrived  in  Yankee  Harbor,  after  his 
memorable  cruise  along  the  Antarctic  Continent 
— an  exploration  of  at  least  150  miles  of  its  coast 
line.  What  he  did  thereafter  among  the  Shetlands 
is  not  recorded  in  the  existing  papers,  but  it  is  rea- 
sonable to  suppose  that  he  continued  the  work  of 
carrying  supplies  to  the  camps  of  the  sealers  and 
bringing  the  skins  taken  there  back  to  the  fleet  in 
Yankee  Harbor.  He  also  had  the  blubber  of  ele- 
phant seals  to  transport  to  the  harbor;  for  a  number 
of  the  men  were  engaged  in  killing  those  seals,  the 
blubber  of  which  was  tried  out  in  kettles  set  up 
on  the  beach  in  Yankee  Harbor.  The  Hero,  when 
ready  to  sail  for  home,  was  loaded  with  this  oil. 
The  day  of  departure  for  home  was  February  22, 
1 82 1,  and  the  entry  in  the  Heroes  log,  that  day, 
was  as  follows: 

^'Thursday,  2 2d  February 
''Commences  with  fine  breeze  from  west.    At  10 
P   M    got   under   weigh   for   sea   in   compay  with 
Frederick,  Express  and  Hersilia.    At  1 1  were  clear 
from  the  Harbor." 

87 


88  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

Two  of  these  vessels  were  homeward  bound,  the 
Frederick  and  the  Hero.  The  Hersilia  soon  stood 
away  to  the  northwest,  bound  to  "Isld  St.  Mary's 
In  Pacific,  hair  sealing,"  and  one  may  suppose  that 
her  crew  were  not  a  little  homesick  as  they  left  the 
others  astern.  In  fact,  if  they  could  have  foreseen 
the  fate  that  awaited  them,  they  never  would  have 
gone  to  the  coast  of  Chili.  The  Hersilia  safely 
reached  her  destination  and  secured  15,000  skins  of 
the  hair  seal — enough  to  yield  a  fine  profit — but  just 
when  ready  to  depart  for  home  the  vessel  was  cap- 
tured by  a  Spanish  officer  named  Benevlades  who 
commanded  a  force  which  was  attempting  to  hold 
the  Chllenos  in  subjection  to  the  Spanish  crown. 
The  crew  were  made  prisoners  and  all  were  com- 
pelled to  serve  the  Spanish  officers  in  menial  capaci- 
ties. Captain  Sheffield  and  most  of  his  crew  finally 
escaped  in  whaleboats  and  went  to  Valparaiso. 
Commodore  Sir  T.  M.  Hardy,  commanding  the 
British  naval  squadron  In  those  waters,  at  once  sent 
a  sloop  of  war,*  with  Captain  Sheffield,  to  liberate 
the  remainder  of  the  sailors,  and  they  were  brought 
back;  but  the  Hersilia  and  her  cargo  had  been  de- 
stroyed by  the  Spaniards  during  a  battle  with  the 
Patriots,  In  which  he  was  defeated. 

The  log  of  the  Hero  for  the  voyage  homeward 
contains  nothing  of  interest  here  until  the  entry  of 
May  7,  which  reads : 

*The  Conivay,  Captain  Basil  Hall.  The  story  is  told  in  con- 
siderable detail  in  Hall's  "Chili,  Peru  and  Mexico,"  Part  I,  Chapter 
23. 


Superior  Work  of  the  Stonington  Men        89 

"Commences  with  fresh  gales  from  north.  Pleas- 
ant. At  6  reefed  the  mainsail.  At  7  sounded  and 
got  ground  at  75,  [figures  indistinct]  fathoms. 
Middle  part  with  light  rain.  At  10  sounded.  Got 
ground  at  35  fathoms  with  soft  [illegible]  ooze 
which  indicates  being  in  Block  Island  channel.  At 
6AM  made  the  land.  Stood  in  and  at  10  tacked 
eastward.  Were  about  15  miles  to  the  westward 
of  Montaug  Point.  Ends  with  fair  weather,  light 
winds  N  by  east.     Employed  in  various  jobs." 

So  runs  the  last  entry  in  the  Heroes  log.  It  was 
a  day  of  low  visibility,  as  a  naval  officer  might  say, 
and  the  Hero  was  carried  to  the  westward  of  Ston- 
ington, but  she  was  anchored,  safe  at  home,  before 
supper  time,  beyond  a  doubt,  after  the  most  memo- 
rable cruise  known  to  the  history  of  the  American 
merchant  marine. 

Of  the  financial  results  of  the  expedition  to  the 
South  Shetlands  a  sufficient  account  is  found  in  the 
records  which  may  be  quoted  here  in  part.  One 
faded   memorandum    contains    the    following    (see 

P-  90). 

The  item  of  1,207  skins  credited  to  "boats"  is  of 

special  interest,  for  one  may  suppose  that  these  skins 
were  taken  from  the  outlying  rocks  by  the  crews  of 
whaleboats  in  the  manner  already  described.  At 
least  a  hundred  such  landings  must  have  been  made 
by  the  sailors  to  secure  that  number.  Rightly  seen, 
that  brief  memorandum  is  a  record  of  daring,  en- 
durance and  persistence  rarely  if  ever  equaled. 


90 


Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 


pr 


ime  fur  skins. 


"The  Hero  brought  [from]  camps  on  the  beach  and  put  on  the 
different  vessels  the  following  Fur  seal  skins: 

November  27,  1820.     Sloop  Hero  from  camp  arrived  with  465  Fur 
skins  prime  skins. 

Deer  2d.  Sloop  from  camp  with  [illegible]     616 

Sloop  arrived  from  camp  Deer  5th  with. .     906 

Deer  9th  sloop  from  camp  with  prime....   9790 

Deer  i2th  sloop  from  camp  with 5616 

Deer  16  sloop  from  camp  with 6865 

Deer   19  sloop  from  camp  with 8229 

Deer    30      "         "  "  "    8000 

Jany  9,  1821  sloop  from  camp  with 6ioi 

"12  "        "  "         "    2800 

3 


Novr.  27,  boats. 


49223 

465 

.   1207 


50895 
February  6,  1821,  took  on  board  brig  Frederick,  Capt.  Ben.,  from 
Brig  Hersilia,  Capt.  James  Sheffield,  12,000  prime  fur  seal. 

The  Hersilia  is  bound  to  isld  St.  Mary's  in  Pacific  hair  sealing." 


The  footings  in  the  above  column  of  figures  are 
incorrect,  as  the  reader  may  determine. 

The  total  catch  of  the  entire  fleet  of  sealers  at 
the  South  Shetlands  during  the  season  of  1820- 
182 1  is  set  down  in  the  records  at  250,000.  Of 
this  number  the  American  vessels  are  credited  with 
150,000,  of  which  number  the  Stonington  fleet  se- 
cured 88,000.  The  Stonington  vessels  also  carried 
home  1,500  barrels  of  elephant  seal  oil  then  worth 
$10  a  barrel.  The  price  received  for  the  skins  is 
not  given. 

A  little  calculation  shows  that  the  12  European 
sealers  averaged  8,333  skins  each  and  the  18  Ameri- 
can vessels  the  same  number.  But  the  crews  of 
the  eight  Stonington  vessels,  having  taken  88,000, 


Superior  Work  of  the  Stonington  Men       91 

their  average  was  11,000  each.  It  is  reasonable  to 
suppose  that  a  considerable  part  of  this  superiority 
was  due  to  the  fact  that  populous  rookeries  were 
found  by  Captain  Palmer  in  his  first  cruise  among 
the  islands. 


CHAPTER  IX 

EXPLORING   WITH    THE    SLOOP    "jAMES    MONROE" 

HAVING  made  large  profits  by  their  expedition 
of  1 820-1 82 1,  the  people  of  Stonington 
naturally  fitted  out  still  another  one  for  the 
ensuing  season.  The  vessels  included  the  brigs 
Frederick  and  Alabama  Packet,  the  schooners  Ex- 
press and  Free  Gift  and  the  sloops  James  Monroe 
and  Hero, 

Two  sloops  were  taken  this  time  In  order  that 
one  might  serve  the  fleet  continuously  as  a  tender, 
while  the  other  would  be  free  to  sail  in  search  of 
new  seal  islands.  For  the  explorations  the  James 
Monroe,  a  larger  sloop  than  the  Hero,  was  selected, 
and  Captain  Palmer  was  put  in  command. 

The  sailing  orders  issued  to  Captain  Palmer,  on 
this  occasion,  as  well  as  the  order  under  which  he 
returned  home  from  the  South  Shetlands,  have  been 
preserved  and  they  are  given  here  partly  because 
they  relate  to  the  captain's  work  and  partly  be- 
cause few  documents  of  the  kind  are  now  to  be 
found  anywhere.     The  sailing  orders  read: 

"Stonington,  July  21,  182 1. 
"Capt.  Nathaniel  B.  Palmer,  Sir: 

"You  will  proceed  to  sea  with  the  sloop  James 
Monroe  the  first  favorable  opportunity  in  company 

92 


Exploring  with  the  Sloop  '^ James  Monroe'^     93 

with  the  brig  Alabama  Packet  and  make  all  despatch 
for  East  Harbor  (if  you  get  separated  from  the 
Alabama  Packet)  on  the  north  side  of  Cape  St. 
Johns  in  the  Island  of  Statten  Land.  On  your  ar- 
rival at  this  East  Harbour  (which  lays  2  or  3  miles 
from  the  end  of  Cape  St.  Johns  on  the  north  side 
of  the  cape)  if  you  do  not  find  Capt.  Benjm.  Pen- 
dleton or  Capt.  William  A.  Fanning  there  you  will 
then  (after  taking  in  what  wood  and  water  you 
stand  in  need  of  if  not  joined  by  one  of  them),  pro- 
ceed with  all  despatch  for  Deception  harbour  in 
New  South  Iceland,  where  you  will  employ  your 
crew  in  taking  Elephant  blubber  and  mincing  and 
fining  your  casks  with  mixed  blubber  &  procur- 
ing seal  skins  until  you  are  joined  by  Capt.  Pendle- 
ton or  Fanning.  It  is  expected  you  will  use  your 
best  judgment  to  keep  your  crew  in  harmony  and 
good  spirits.  Good  usage  and  strict  Discipline  will 
best  do  this  and  enable  you  to  procure  a  good  voy- 
age, or  full  cargo  of  skins  and  oil,  which  is  our  first 
object  and  wish,  and  we  expect  your  best  endeavor 
at  all  times  to  do  this.  You  will  consider  yourself 
and  crew  and  vessel  mated  with  the  brigs  Frederick 
and  Alabama  Packet,  schooners  Express  &  Free  Gift 
and  sloop  Hero,  and  you  will  share  with  them  in 
proportion  to  the  number  of  their  and  your  crews, 
as  Capt.  Benjm  Pendleton  shall  direct,  and  you  will 
at  all  time  consider  yourself  and  vessel  under  his 
orders  and  directions,  but  in  case  of  his  inability 
or  absence  you  will  consider  yourself  &  vessel  under 


94  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

the  orders  and  direction  of  Capt.  William  A.  Fan- 
ning, &  govern  your  acts  and  proceedings  accord- 
ingly, and  as  your  vessel  is  fitted  and  sent  out  for 
the  express  purpose  to  act  as  a  tender  or  shallop 
to  the  vessels  of  this  concern,  you  will  at  all  times 
consider  the  importance  of  arriving  at  Deception 
harbour  by  the  time  that  the  brigs  Frederick  and 
Alabama  Packet  does,  and  with  this  [blotted] 
recommend  to  you  to  use  your  best  endeavors  to 
keep  in  company  and  not  get  separated  from  the 
brig  Alabama  Packet  in  your  passage  out.  You  will 
be  prudent  and  careful  in  the  expenditure  of  your 
provisions  &  stores  &  do  your  best  to  obtain  a  good 
voyage. 

"Wishing  you  health  and  prosperity,  we  are  your 
sincere  friends 

"E.  Fanning     1  Agents  for  the 
"B.  Pendleton  J         Concern 

*T.  S. — If  any  Inability  occurs  to  Capt.  Nathl  B. 
Palmer  then  the  next  commanding  officer  will  govern 
himself  strictly  by  the  above  orders. 

"E.  Fanning    \a_„._» 
*'B.  Pendleton  ]^^^''^^' 

When  ready  to  return  home  at  the  end  of  the  sea- 
son Captain  Palmer  received  the  following  letter 
from  Commodore  Pendleton: 
«gjj..  "Shetland,  Jany  25,  1822. 

"You  being  ready  you  will  proceed  to  sea  and 
make  all  possible  despatch  for  the  port  of  Stoning- 


Exploring  with  the  Sloop  *^James  Monroe^'     95 

ton,  consistent  with  the  safety  of  your  vessel  and 
cargo.  Should  necessity  oblige  you  to  stop  I  recom- 
mend [illegible]  having  as  little  communication 
with  the  main  as  possible ;  I  wish  you  to  bear  In  mind 
the  Importance  of  as  little  detention  as  your  situation 
will  admit  of. 

"Relying  on  your  ability  and  active  exertions  to 
effect  the  speedy  close  of  the  part  of  our  expedition 
intrusted  to  your  charge,  I  am, 

"Sir,  yr.  obt.  Servt.,  Benjamin  Pendleton. 
"Capt.  N.  B.  Palmer 

Vas  Monroe,'' 

The  order  to  have  as  little  communication  with 
the  main  as  possible  is  of  interest  because  at  that 
time  all  the  Spanish  American  colonies  were  in  revolt 
and  American  vessels  were  harshly  treated  in  South 
American  ports,  no  matter  which  army  was  In  posses- 
sion; and  that  is  a  matter  to  receive  further  con- 
sideration in  another  chapter. 

As  soon  as  the  sloop  James  Monroe  arrived  at 
Yankee  Harbor  she  fitted  out  for  an  exploring  ex- 
pedition along  the  coast  of  the  Antarctic  Continent 
which  Captain  Palmer  had  visited  the  previous  sea- 
son. Commodore  Pendleton  hoped  that  In  spite  of 
the  failure  to  find  fur  seals  there  In  the  former  trip 
they  might  haul  out  there  during  this  season.  This 
hope  proved  vain,  but  it  is  interesting  to  note  that, 
while  all  the  other  exploring  expeditions  to  that  re- 
gion were  made   in  large   and  well-found  vessels 


g6  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

(the  tender  of  the  Wilkes  expedition  was  of  lOO 
tons  burden  and  built  with  special  framing  for  the 
purpose),  the  sealers  nonchalantly  used  common 
coasters  from  Long  Island  Sound.  While  men  thus 
risk  their  lives  for  any  good  purpose  the  evolution 
of  the  race  is  assured. 

As  in  his  previous  trip  along  the  continent,  Cap- 
tain Palmer  carefully  examined  the  bays  and  fiords 
and  islands  found  there  but  he  did  not  see  a  fur  seal, 
and  when  in  about  the  same  latitude  as  before 
(68^)  he  was  turned  back  by  solid  ice. 

Having  returned  to  Yankee  Harbor,  Captain 
Palmer  was  sent  to  the  east  and  southeast  to  ex- 
plore the  continent  still  further.  In  this  voyage  a 
British  sealer,  the  sloop  Dove,  Captain  George 
Powell,  sailed  in  company  with  the  James  Monroe. 
It  seems  worth  while  to  emphasize  the  fact  that 
these  two  sealers.  Captain  Palmer  and  Captain 
Powell,  worked  together  in  entire  harmony.  A 
small  group  of  barren  islands  was  discovered  on 
December  6,  1821,  lying  between  60°  30'  and  60° 
48'  south  latitude  and  between  44°  and  47°  west 
longitude.  The  exact  extent  of  the  coast  of  the 
continent  which  the  two  explorers  traced  is  not 
given  in  the  records.     No  seals  were  found. 

On  the  return  of  the  two  vessels  to  Yankee  Har- 
bor, Captain  Powell  suggested  that,  as  the  main- 
land (supposed  to  be  an  island),  found  the  pre- 
vious year,  had  been  named  for  Captain  Palmer, 


Exploring  with  the  Sloop  ^^James  Monroe**    97 

the  islands  discovered  on  the  present  voyage  should 
be  named  Powell's  Islands;  and  to  this  all  the  cap- 
tains in  the  harbor  agreed. 

Captain  Powell  also  told  the  other  sealers  that, 
on  his  return  home  to  London,  he  purposed  pub- 
lishing a  chart  of  the  entire  South  Shetland  region 
which  the  sealers  had  thus  far  explored,  and  asked 
for  all  the  notes  the  others  had  made.  To  this 
the  sealers  all  cordially  agreed,  of  course.  The 
facts  thus  obtained,  added  to  what  he  had  learned 
through  his  own  observations,  were  combined  in  the 
chart  previously  mentioned. 

The  Stonington  fleet  was  by  no  means  successful 
in  the  harvest  at  the  South  Shetlands,  during  this 
season.  The  rookeries  had  been  so  badly  depleted 
in  the  preceding  year  that  only  1,500  skins  were 
taken  all  told  during  this  one.  Accordingly,  in  order 
to  make  a  profit  in  spite  of  this  failure,  the  two  brigs 
and  the  sloop  Hero  went  to  the  coasts  of  Peru  and 
Chili  for  skins  of  the  hair  seal.  Captain  Alexander 
Palmer,  a  brother  of  Captain  Nat,  sailed  on  this  ex- 
pedition as  a  boy  on  the  Alabama  Packet.  A  memo- 
randum left  by  him  says  that  the  crews  of  the 
three  vessels  which  went  to  the  coast  of  Chili  took 
27,000  skins  at  St.  Mary's  and  Mocha  Islands. 
These  the  Frederick  carried  home,  after  which  the 
Alabama  Packet  and  the  Hero  crews  took  25,000 
more.  The  little  fleet  also  secured  1,500  barrels 
of  elephant  seal  oil.     The  Hero  was  then  sold  at 


98  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

Coquimbo.  The  Alabama  Packet  arrived  at  Ston- 
ington  in  a  few  days  less  than  two  years  from  the 
day  she  left  that  port.  On  the  whole  the  Stonington 
venture  had  been  profitable,  even  though  few  furs 
were  secured. 


CHAPTER  X 

CARRYING  SUPPLIES  TO  BOLIVAR 

TO  say  to  a  reader  who  knows  nothing  about 
the  conditions  then  prevailing  at  sea,  that 
Captain  Palmer,  after  his  return  In  1822 
from  the  Shetland  Islands,  made  a  voyage  from  New 
Haven  to  St.  Bartholomew,  in  the  West  Indies,  and 
back.  In  a  little  less  than  a  month,  does  not  convey 
any  very  startling  Information.  But  If  It  were  said 
to  one  familiar  with  the  history  of  the  region,  the 
reply  might  well  be : 

''Short  voyage,  that,  but  you  couldn't  blame  him 
for  carrying  on.** 

"Carrying  on"  certainly  was  needful  when  voyages 
were  made  to  any  part  of  the  West  Indies,  or  to  the 
Spanish  American  coast.  In  those  days.  During  all 
the  years  in  which  Americans  had  had  a  merchant 
marine,  speed  had  been  necessary  if  losses  were  to 
be  avoided.  Ships  had  always  carried  cannon  when 
bound  on  oversea  voyages.  For  the  wars  of  Europe 
had  always  Involved  the  Americans,  and  European 
privateers,  most  of  whom  were  little  or  no  better 
than  pirates,  had  always  considered  American  ships 
good  prizes.  To  escape  them  It  was  always  neces- 
sary to  run  or  fight. 

99 


100         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

In  1822,  even  though  the  War  of  18 12  had  taught 
European  naval  people  that  Yankee  sailors  were 
first  class  fighting  men,  the  American  ships  were 
continuously  harassed  in  all  West  India  waters 
because  the  revolt  of  the  Spanish  American  colonies 
had  created  a  condition  of  anarchy  throughout  that 
region.  Many  armed  ships,  from  American  ports 
as  well  as  from  European,  had  been  sent  ostensibly 
to  join  the  revolutionists  in  their  fight  against  Spain. 
Some  of  the  ablest  captains  who  had  commanded 
privateers  in  the  War  of  18 12  had  thus  gone  to  the 
aid  of  the  Spanish-Americans.  But  while  they  as- 
serted their  object  was  to  fight  for  universal  free- 
dom, they  were  really  actuated  by  a  desire  to  plunder 
Spanish  shipping.  Going  to  any  Spanish-American 
port  which  was  in  the  control  of  revolutionists,  they 
secured  commissions  as  privateers. 

Sailing  thence  they  searched  the  West  India 
waters  for  Spanish  ships,  they  went  to  the  coasts 
of  Spain  with  a  similar  intent  and  they  even  sailed 
as  far  as  Manila.  But  while  a  few  were  enormously 
successful  the  many  failed  to  find  any  Spanish  ship 
worth  the  trouble  of  looting. 

Now  the  crews  of  these  unlucky  privateers  were 
engaged  under  a  contract  by  which  they  were  to 
receive  a  share  of  the  plunder  in  lieu  of  wages — 
no  plunder,  no  wages.  And  the  members  of  the 
crews  were  commonly  men  of  long  experience  in 
privateering  or  of  no  experience  whatever.  The 
old  hands,  having  been  plundering  ships  for  years, 


Carrying  Supplies  to  Bolivar  loi 

had  no  scruples  about  doing  deeds  of  outright 
piraq^ — and  the  officers  of  those  vessels  were 
the  most  experienced  and  the  most  greedy  men  on 
board.  Lacking  lawful  plunder  the  Spanish-Ameri- 
can pirates  took  such  plunder  as  came  to  hand,  re- 
gardless of  the  flag  involved. 

When  Captain  Palmer  made  his  short  voyage 
to  St.  Bartholomew,  in  1822,  there  were  many  of 
these  piratical  cruisers  afloat  among  the  West  Indies. 
There  were  also  pirates  under  the  Spanish  flag 
searching  for  American  merchantmen.  Having  a 
navy  that  was  in  every  way  inefficient,  the  Spaniards 
had  thought  to  curb  the  cruisers  under  Spanish- 
American  flags  by  declaring  a  blockade  of  all  Span- 
ish-American ports — a  paper  blockade,  so  called 
because  they  were  unable  to  enforce  it.  They  then 
commissioned  armed  vessels  to  go  in  search  of 
any  ships  bound  to  or  from  any  of  the  ports  upon 
which  a  blockade  had  been  declared.  The  crews 
of  these  Spanish  privateers  were  of  the  same 
character  as  those  under  the  patriot  flags — pirates 
all. 

The  "Naval  Affairs"  volumes  of  the  "American 
State  Papers"  contain  scores  of  documents  relating 
to  the  pirates  of  both  classes.  On  page  814,  of 
Volume  I,  for  example,  is  a  list  of  six  of  the  Spanish 
privateers  that  were  fitted  out  at  Porto  Rican  ports. 
One,  named  Pancheta,  was  "an  hermaphrodite  brig, 
pierced  for  sixteen  guns,  carries  ten  or  twelve;  has 
a  complement  of  120  men." 


102         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

In  another  document  (p.  787)  is  the  following 
under  date  of  March  2,  1822: 

''The  extent  to  which  the  system  of  plunder  upon 
the  ocean  is  carried  on  in  the  West  India  seas  and 
Gulf  of  Mexico,  is  truly  alarming.  .  .  .  Some  fresh 
instance  of  the  atrocity  with  which  the  pirates  carry 
on  their  depredations,  accompanied,  too,  by  the  in- 
discriminate massacre  of  the  defenceless,  is  brought 
by  almost  every  mail.  .  .  .  The  committee  of  the 
House  of  Representatives  are  induced  to  believe 
that  this  system  of  piracy  is  now  spreading  itself  to 
a  vast  extent,  attracting  to  it  the  idle,  vicious  and 
desperate  of  all  nations." 

In  proof  that  the  system  was  thus  spreading  is 
a  statement  in  a  document  dated  December  2,  1824, 
which  appears  on  page  22  of  Volume  II,  as  follows: 

"Whole  crews  have  been  recently  murdered,  their 
vessels  burnt  and  their  cargoes  plundered  and  In 
some  instances  openly  sold  at  the  Matanzas  or  the 
Havana." 

Other  documents  give  details  of  the  assaults  upon 
merchant  crews  which  make  painful  reading;  for 
not  only  were  these  seamen  cut  to  pieces  with  knives 
but  they  were  confined  under  hatches  and  the  ships 
were  then  fired,  so  that  the  crews  were  burned  to 
death. 

It  was  while  such  conditions  as  these  documents 


Carrying  Supplies  to  Bolivar  103 

described  were  prevailing  in  the  West  Indies  that 
young  Captain  Palmer  left  the  sealing  business  and 
took  command  of  a  small  merchantman  bound  to 
St.  Bartholomew.  It  was  a  voyage  during  which 
he  was  fully  justified  in  carrying  sail  to  the  limit, 
but  when  the  young  captain  recalled  it  in  later  years 
the  danger,  if  it  were  realized  while  on  the  route, 
was  entirely  forgotten.  At  any  rate  when  the  cap- 
tain mentioned  this  voyage  it  was  only  to  tell  what 
he  considered  a  good  joke  upon  himself.  A  letter 
written  A.  A.  Low,  the  New  York  tea  merchant,  in 
1875,  a  copy  of  which  is  among  the  papers  at  Ston- 
ington,  gives  the  facts.  It  says  that  after  the  sloop 
James  Monroe  returned  from  her  voyage  to  the 
South  Shetlands  and  the  Antarctic  Continent,  she 
was  sold  at  auction  at  Stonington.  A  New  Haven 
ship  merchant  named  Henry  Trowbridge  bought  her 
for  use  in  the  West  India  trade  as  a  "sheep  jockey," 
to  use  the  term  applied  to  such  vessels,  and  Palmer 
was  hired  to  take  command.     The  letter  continues: 

"I  took  the  sloop  to  New  Haven  and  put  her  in 
condition  for  the  voyage.  She  was  loaded  with 
everything  you  can  think  of  below.  Even  the  cabin 
was  filled,  leaving  one  length  of  berths  for  the  mate 
and  myself.  The  deck  was  filled  with  sheep,  175 
in  number.  On  top  of  [above]  the  sheep  [the] 
deck  was  fitted  with  coops  of  fowls  and  provender — 
a  hard-looking  sloop,  I  assure  you,  when  ready  for 
sea.    We  sailed  and  in  12  days  arrived  at  our  port, 


104         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

a  long  time  in  advance  of  vessels  that  had  sailed 
before  us.  Sold  our  cargo,  half  loaded  our  sloop 
with  sugar  and  arrived  back  at  New  Haven  in  29 
days  from  day  of  our  departure. 

"I  had  enough  of  New  Haven  Sheep  Jockeys 
and  demanded  my  discharge,  after  entering  the 
vessel.  Nothing  had  been  said  about  wages.  I 
called  on  Mr.  Trowbridge  for  settlement — a  pom- 
pous, fat  old  fellow.    He  said: 

"  'Captain,  what  do  you  think  the  wages  should 
be?' 

"  'What  you  think  is  right.' 

"  'Well,'  he  said,  'I  think  as  you  have  made  the 
voyage  in  29  days,  I  think  thirty  silver  dollars  is 
about  a  fair  thing.  I  do  not  think  it  good  policy 
for  a  young  man  to  have  too  much  money.  They 
are  very  apt  to  make  a  bad  use  of  it.'  " 

Most  of  the  ship  owners  of  that  day  were  con- 
stantly on  the  lookout  for  seamen  who  could  make 
swift  passages,  and  the  29-day  voyage  to  St.  Bar- 
tholomew led  Captain  Palmer  to  the  command  of 
a  schooner  named  Cadet  which  was  in  the  trade 
to  the  Spanish  Main.  It  was,  of  course,  a  much 
more  dangerous  trade  than  that  to  St.  Bartholomew. 
For  not  only  was  the  captain  obliged  to  run  the  risk 
of  meeting  all  the  varieties  of  pirates  in  the  West 
Indies,  but  he  was  subjected  to  the  whims  of  both 
the  South  American  Patriots  and  the  Spanish  offi- 


Carrying  Supplies  to  Bolivar  105 

cials  who  were  fighting  to  maintain  the  power  of 
Spain. 

Only  one  letter  and  a  few  notes  made  by  friends 
remain  to  tell  the  story  of  the  two  voyages  made  in 
the  Cadet,  but  it  appears  that  she  was  the  property 
of  Baldwin  &  Spooner,  of  New  York,  and  that  both 
voyages  were  made  to  Carthagena,  where  Bolivar 
was  in  command.  It  is  therefore  reasonable  to  sup- 
pose that  the  cargo  consisted  of  arms,  ammunition, 
medicines  and  other  supplies  which  an  army  in  the 
field  would  need.  There  was  some  trouble  with 
the  consignee  in  the  first  voyage,  the  character  of 
which  is  not  given,  but  it  is  plainly  shown  that  Cap- 
tain Palmer  handled  the  matter  to  the  satisfaction 
of  the  owners.  In  the  second  voyage  the  cargo  was 
delivered  in  good  order  on  February  25,  1824;  but 
when  the  captain  would  have  sailed  for  home  he 
was  compelled  to  carry  a  detachment  of  the  Patriot 
army  to  the  port  of  Chagres,  at  the  mouth  of  the 
river  that  gave  the  canal  builders  on  the  Isthmus 
of  Panama  so  much  trouble. 

Blunt's  "American  Coast  Pilot,"  issued  in  1847, 
quotes  Capt.  G.  Sidney  Smith,  H.  H.  Sloop  Bustard, 
as  follows,  regarding  the  dangers  of  Chagres: 

"I  would  not  recommend  its  being  entered,  if 
the  measure  could  possibly  be  avoided,  or  to  suffer 
the  boats  to  be  there  at  night.  It  is  perhaps,  the 
most  unhealthy  place  known.    The  Bustard^ s  cutter 


io6         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

was  by  stress  of  weather,  obliged  to  pass  a  night  in 
the  harbor;  the  consequent  loss  was  a  lieutenant  and 
seven  men;  only  one  of  the  number  attacked  re- 
covered. This  happened  between  the  27th  and  30th 
day  of  November,  1827." 

In  spite  of  the  deadly  character  of  the  port,  Cap- 
tain Palmer  was  detained  there  for  a  month.  Of 
course  he  suffered  from  an  attack  of  the  fever  for 
which  the  port  was  notorious,  but  the  strength  of 
mind  and  body  which  had  been  developed  in  him 
during  eleven  years  of  life  as  a  sailor,  and  especially 
during  his  life  as  a  sealer,  carried  him  safely 
through.  However,  he  lost  his  hair  and  when  it 
grew  in  again  it  had  changed  from  the  light  color 
which  had  characterized  it  theretofore  to  a  dark 
chestnut. 

Up  to  this  time  Captain  Palmer  had  been  a  big 
boy  in  appearance.  Now,  as  health  returned,  he 
became  a  notable  figure  physically,  and  he  developed 
the  commanding  presence  which  made  him  every 
inch  a  master  whenever  he  appeared  upon  a  ship's 
deck,   whether  his   own  or  another's. 

After  Captain  Palmer  recovered  from  the  attack 
of  Chagres  fever  far  enough  to  be  able  to  go  to 
sea,  he  chartered  the  Cadet  to  carry  Spaniards — 
prisoners  whom  Bolivar  had  captured — to  Santiago 
de  Cuba.  And  this  purpose  was  accomplished  to 
the  entire  satisfaction  of  Bolivar,  of  the  Spaniards, 
and  of  the  owners  of  the  Cadet. 


Carrying  Supplies  to  Bolivar  107 

Though  so  few  details  of  either  of  the  voyages 
from  New  York  remain  on  record,  it  will  help  the 
reader  to  appreciate  the  character  of  the  captain 
to  restate  what  he  did  during  the  two  voyages  to 
Carthagena. 

Though  but  twenty-three  years  old  he  was  trusted 
to  carry  a  cargo  that  was  contraband  of  war,  to 
the  insurgent  chief  at  Carthagena.  On  his  passage 
out  he  had  to  risk  meeting  pirates  of  all  classes, 
any  one  of  whom  would  have  found  the  Cadet's 
cargo  most  valuable.  At  Carthagena  he  had  to  deal 
not  only  with  Bolivar  but  with  a  number  of  subor- 
dinate officers  who  were  at  once  proud,  poverty- 
stricken  and,  in  cases,  not  too  scrupulous  in  their 
methods  of  securing  the  supplies  they  wanted.  With 
these.  Palmer  had  to  settle  the  accounts  of  the 
schooner;  from  them  he  had  to  get  the  price  of  the 
goods  he  had  brought,  and  he  did  it.  When  trans- 
porting the  insurgent  troops  to  Chagres,  he  cer- 
tainly had  a  turbulent  mass  of  humanity  to  deal 
with.  And,  finally,  when  he  carried  the  Spaniards 
to  the  Spanish  port  of  Santiago,  in  Cuba,  he  had 
a  still  more  sensitive  class  to  deal  with.  Moreover, 
he  arrived  at  his  destination  under  the  odium  of 
having  been  in  the  employ  of  the  insurgents — trai- 
tors, in  the  Spanish  view — and  was  therefore 
obliged  to  deal  with  the  Santiago  officials  under  a 
heavy  handicap.  But  difficult  as  was  his  work  he 
accomplished  it  all,  as  said,  to  the  entire  satisfaction 


io8         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

of  the  Insurgents,  the  Spaniards  and  the  owners  of 
the  schooner. 

When  a  Spaniard  wishes  to  compliment  his 
friends  he  commonly  says  they  are  muy  simpatico. 
Literally  translated  the  words  mean  "very  sym- 
pathetic" ;  but  as  used  by  the  Spanish  American  they 
imply  full  understanding  as  well  as  entire  sympathy. 
All  the  Spanish-speaking  people,  with  whom  Cap- 
tain Palmer  came  In  contact  during  those  voyages 
in  the  Cadet,  found  him  77iiiy  simpatico.  And  entire 
sympathy  with  full  understanding  bound  a  great  host 
of  friends  to  him  throughout  his  life. 

After  leaving  Santiago,  homeward  bound,  the 
Cadet  had  to  sail  through  the  pirate-Infested  waters 
along  the  south  coast  of  Cuba ;  for  the  sailing  route 
was  to  the  w^est  along  that  coast  to  Cape  San  An- 
tonio and  thence  easterly  with  the  Gulf  Stream. 
The  cape  was  then  and  for  years  thereafter  the  lurk- 
ing place  of  pirates,  for  the  reason  that  so  many 
vessels  bound  north  passed  that  way. 

However,  Captain  Palmer  met  no  pirates  in  those 
waters,  but  an  experience  of  that  kind  came  later 
off  the  west  coast  of  South  America  under  remark- 
able circumstances.  The  second  voyage  to  Car- 
thagena  ended  disastrously  because  the  Cadet  was 
driven  ashore  on  the  Jersey  coast,  near  Long 
Branch.  What  the  prevailing  storm  conditions  were 
is  not  a  matter  of  record,  but  it  Is  said  that  Captain 
Nat's  brother,  Alexander,  was  a  member  of  the 
Cadet's  crew  (mate)  and  when  she  stranded  he  and 


Carrying  Supplies  to  Bolivar  109 

another  sailor  launched  a  small  boat  to  carry  a  line 
to  the  beach.  The  surf  rolled  the  boat  over  in  spite 
of  the  skilled  efforts  of  the  experienced  young  sealer 
who  was  handling  her,  but  he  and  the  sailor  made 
their  way  ashore  and  they  carried  the  line,  at  that. 
So  all  hands  were  saved,  but  the  vessel  was  a  total 
loss. 

Of  all  the  misfortunes  that  come  to  a  young  cap- 
tain none  is  greater  than  the  loss  of  a  ship.  For 
unless  he  can  prove  clearly  that  he  was  in  no  way 
to  blame,  the  underwriters  blacklist  him  and  other 
owners  become  in  like  manner  ill-disposed  toward 
him.  There  is  then  nothing  for  him  to  do  but  begin 
over  again,  and  he  is  lucky  to  get  a  berth  as  second 
mate.  But  Captain  Nat  was  now  placed  in  com- 
mand of  the  brig  Tampico  and  sent  once  more  on 
a  voyage  to  Carthagena.  In  spite  of  shipwreck  as 
well  as  in  spite  of  supersensitive  consignees,  the 
young  captain  made  his  way.  A  fourth  voyage  to 
Carthagena  was  made  in  1826,  and  after  returning 
home  from  this  one  he  was  married. 

It  used  to  be  said  of  any  young  sailor  that  he 
had  a  sweetheart  in  every  port.  Captain  Nat  had 
one  sweetheart  only  and  she  lived  in  Stonington — 
Miss  Eliza  T.,  the  daughter  of  Paul  Babcock.  The 
two  were  married  on  December  7,  1826.  Mrs. 
Palmer's  brother  David  was  a  famous  clipper  cap- 
tain and,  later.  President  of  the  Pacific  Mail  Steam- 
ship Company. 

The  career  of  the  young  captain  during  the  next 


1 10         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

few  years  was  typical  of  young  American  seamen 
of  the  day.  He  made  seven  voyages  in  the  Tampico 
with  his  brother  Alexander  as  mate.  In  some  of 
these  he  went  to  Europe.  It  appears  from  notes 
made  by  a  member  of  the  family  that  he  eventually 
became  owner  of  this  vessel  and  that  he  sold  her 
in  1828  for  $5,300,  a  fact  that  shows  he  was  ac- 
cumulating wxalth.  A  part  of  this  money  was  in- 
vested in  a  new  schooner  which  was  put  into  the 
trade  between  New  Orleans  and  Vera  Cruz,  Mexico. 
He  had  traded  to  Mobile,  as  well  as  to  New 
Orleans. 

In  the  meantime  sufficient  reasons  for  sending 
another  exploring  expedition  to  the  Antarctic  waters 
had  been  under  consideration  by  the  public — es- 
pecially alongshore — and  young  Captain  Palmer  be- 
came a  leader  in  the  enterprise  under  circumstances 
of  so  much  interest  that  a  special  chapter  may  be 
given  to  the  matter. 


CHAPTER  XI 

ANOTHER    MEMORABLE    EXPLORING    EXPEDITION 

THE  Story  of  the  voyage  which  Captain  Na- 
thaniel Brown  Palmer  made  to  the  Antarctic 
region  in  1 829-1 830,  if  considered  as  a  chap- 
ter in  the  history  of  the  American  merchant  marine, 
is  of  little  less  interest  than  that  of  his  voyage 
during  which  he  discovered  the  Antarctic  Con- 
tinent. 

To  show  the  captain's  standing  in  this  expedition, 
and  more  especially  his  mental  attitude  toward  the 
work,  it  is  necessary  to  describe  rather  fully  the 
peculiar  circumstances  which  led  up  to  the  venture. 
A  perusal  of  the  periodicals  of  the  day  shows  that 
after  Captain  Palmer  discovered  the  Antarctic  Con- 
tinent, and  after  the  story  of  his  interview  with 
Captain  Bellingshausen,  of  the  Russian  exploring  ex- 
pedition, had  been  told  alongshore,  the  whalers  and 
sealers  of  the  New  England  coast  began  to  talk 
about  the  advisability  of  sending  a  national  [naval] 
expedition  to  survey  the  unvisited  waters  of  the  far 
South  and  those  of  the  Pacific — to  do  such  work 
as  that  which  the  Russians  had  been  doing.  That 
is  to  say  the  expedition  should,  they  said : 


112         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

"(i)  Search  for  lands  which  passing  ships  had 
reported  in  far  southern  seas,  the  location  of  which, 
however,  was  not  definitely  known. 

"(2)  Locate  definitely  some  hundreds  of  islands 
which  had  been  discovered  by  strolling  whalers  in 
various  parts  of  the  Pacific. 

"(3)   Search  for  lands  in  unvisited  waters." 

The  sealers  of  Stonington  were  especially  inter- 
ested in  an  island  which  Capt.  James  C.  Swain,  of 
the  whaler  Alliance,  of  Newport,  R.  I.,  said  he 
had  seen,  or  which  he  thought  he  saw,  while  on  his 
way  home  from  the  Pacific  with  2,300  barrels  of 
sperm  oil.  When  on  his  way  to  round  the  Horn 
he  passed  much  further  south  than  usual,  and  in  lati- 
tude 59°  south  and  longitude  90°  west,  "discovered 
an  island  .  .  .  covered  with  snow  and  abounding 
with  seadogs  and  fowl."  So  runs  the  record.  The 
date  of  the  discovery  is  not  given  but  the  Alliance 
arrived  home  on  May  21,  1824. 

Capt.  Richard  Macy,  of  Nantucket,  "a  very  in- 
telligent man,"  who  had  "long  been  engaged  in  the 
whale  fishery,"  and  had  "shown  more  than  usual 
skill  in  his  observations  .  .  .  discovered  an  island 
four  or  five  miles  in  extent,  in  south  latitude  59° 
and  west  longitude  91°,  his  ship  passing  near  enough 
to  see  the  breakers.  The  island  abounded  with 
seadogs,  or  seals,  and  the  water  was  much  colored 
and  thick  with   rockweed." 

This  observation  was  made  on  the  way  to  the 


Another  Memorable  Exploring  Expedition     113 

Pacific.  When  coming  home  from  this  voyage  (he 
reached  Nantucket  on  April  17,  1825),  Macy 
sailed  far  south  once  more,  reaching  the  55th  par- 
allel, and  at  a  point  of  which  the  longitude  is  not 
given  he  "found  the  water  much  colored,  abounding 
with  rockweed  and  seals." 

The  above  facts  and  quoted  statements  are  taken 
from  Volume  IV  of  the  "Naval  Affairs"  of  the 
"American  State  Papers"  series,  pages  695-698,  and 
from  Starbuck's  "History  of  American  Whaling," 
pages  243  and  246.  The  location  of  the  island,  as 
thus  described,  seems  sufficiently  definite  to  warrant 
a  search.  Apparently  any  ship  master  should  have 
been  able  to  confirm  the  discoveries  with  little  diffi- 
culty. But  references  to  discoveries,  found  else- 
where In  the  record  quoted,  show  that  both  of  those 
whalers  saw,  or  thought  they  saw,  the  Islands  after 
they  had  been  sailing  by  dead  reckoning  for  several 
days.  Cloudy  weather  prevented  their  verifying  the 
locations  by  observations  of  the  sun  or  any  other 
heavenly  body. 

It  Is  also  to  be  noted  here  that  the  "Naval  Af- 
fairs" volume  quoted,  says  that  even  the  observa- 
tions of  the  sun,  as  made  by  the  whalers  under 
favorable  conditions,  were  not  trustworthy.  Their 
chronometers  were  commonly  out  of  time  and  they 
used  poor  instruments  in  a  careless  manner. 

The  two  reports  of  Islands  upon  which  many 
"seadogs"  were  seen  by  passing  ships,  aroused  keen 
interest  at  Stonlngton,  which  was  then  the  principal 


114         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

port  of  the  sealers.  The  whalers  of  Nantucket  were 
almost  as  deeply  Interested,  however,  and  the  matter 
was  fully  discussed  by  seafaring  people  all  along 
the  coast.  At  the  same  time  the  many  islands  that 
had  been  reported  from  various  parts  of  the  Pacific 
were  considered.  For  all  of  these  islands,  and  more 
especially  the  low-lying  coral  reefs,  were  deadly 
sources  of  peril  to  all  shipping  as  long  as  their  exact 
locations  had  not  been  charted. 

The  call  for  a  naval  exploring  expedition  which 
arose  in  consequence  of  these  reports  was  entirely 
new  in  America,  and  may  receive  further  considera- 
tion. In  every  newspaper  discussion  of  the  call  the 
fact  that  the  British  were  active  in  making  such 
explorations  was  mentioned.  The  fact  that  the  Rus- 
sians, who  had  no  financial  interests  in  the  Antarctic 
seas,  had  sent  two  warships  there,  was  referred  to. 
More  important  still  was  the  insistence  upon  the 
humiliating  fact  that  American  seamen  were  abso- 
lutely dependent  upon  charts  provided  by  British 
surveyors  whenever  a  deep-water  voyage  was  to  be 
made.  However  loudly  the  Yankee  sailor  might 
boast  of  the  superiority  of  his  ship  over  all  others, 
the  British  sailor  always  came  back  with  a  quiet 
query  as  to  where  that  ship  got  her  charts. 

Granting  that  the  sealers  and  the  whalers  had  a 
financial  interest  in  a  naval  exploring  expedition,  it 
Is  yet  certain  that  they  were  also  animated  by  a 
feeling  of  patriotic  indignation  over  the  supine  at- 
titude of  Congress  in  the  matter. 


Another  Memorable  Exploring  Expedition     115 

In  the  *'Naval  Affairs"  volufties  quoted  many  of 
the  great  folio  pages  are  covered  with  letters  and 
memorials  on  the  subject  of  a  naval  exploring  ex- 
pedition, all  of  which  show  a  growing  interest  in 
the  subject.  An  energetic  young  Yankee  named 
J.  N.  Reynolds  was  a  leader  in  the  efforts  to  move 
Congress.  Captain  Edmund  Fanning,  the  Stoning- 
ton  capitalist  who  had  made  a  fortune  taking  seals 
in  the  Cape  Horn  region,  was  an  equally  influential 
worker.  His  "Voyages  Round  the  World,"  which 
is  yet  an  interesting  volume  of  explorations,  was 
written  when  public  discussion  of  the  matter  was 
at  its  height.  In  connection  with  the  propaganda 
of  the  two  men  mentioned  it  is  noted  in  the  "Naval 
Affairs"  volumes  that  memorials  were  presented  to 
Congress,  in  1 827-1 829,  which  were  signed  by  Gov. 
James  Iredell,  of  North  Carolina,  and  by  Lieut. 
Gov.  Erastus  Root,  of  New  York.  The  House  of 
Delegates,  in  Maryland,  passed  a  resolution  favor- 
ing the  project.  Hon.  Linn  Banks,  Speaker  of  the 
House  of  Delegates,  in  Virginia,  and  "a  large  and 
very  respectable  number  of  the  members  of  the 
Legislature"  also  signed  a  memorial  on  the  subject. 

In  short,  public  interest  was  aroused  to  a  point 
so  high  that  "on  May  21,  1828,  the  House  of 
Representatives  passed  a  resolution  requesting  the 
President  of  the  United  States"  to  send  "one  of  our 
small  naval  vessels  to  the  Pacific  Ocean  and  the 
South  Sea  to  examine  the  coasts,  islands,  harbors, 
shoals   and   reefs  in  those   seas,   and  to  ascertain 


Ii6         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

their  true  location  and  description."  The  resolu- 
tion authorized  "the  use  of  such  facilities  as  could 
be  afforded  by  the  [Navy]  Department  without 
further  appropriation  during  the  year." 

In  a  letter  written  by  Secretary  of  the  Navy 
Samuel  Southard,  on  May  23,  1828,  he  said,  "there 
was  no  vessel  belonging  to  our  navy  which  in  its 
then  condition  was  proper  to  send  upon  this  ex- 
pedition." However,  the  sloop-of-war  Peacock  was 
ordered  to  the  Brooklyn  Navy  yard  to  be  properly 
fitted  for  such  a  survey,  and  Master  Commandant 
Thomas  ap  Catesby  Jones  was  placed  in  command 
of  her.  Mr.  J.  N.  Reynolds  was  appointed  an 
agent  of  the  Navy  Department  to  assist  in  provid- 
ing the  outfit.  It  was  then  decided  to  send  along 
a  commercial  expert,  an  astronomer,  "a  naturalist 
with  one  or  two  assistants,  and  a  historiographer." 

Then  "a  second  vessel  was  conditionally  purchased 
at  an  agreed  price  of  $10,000"  to  serve  as  "a  pro- 
vision ship."  This  vessel  was  the  brig  Seraph, 
owned  and  commanded  by  Captain  Benjamin  Pen- 
dleton, of  Stonington,  the  man  who  had  been  com- 
modore of  the  Stonington  sealing  fleet  in  the  expedi- 
tions of  1820-1822.  Pendleton  had  already  loaded 
the  Seraph  with  a  cargo  for  Malaga,  when  he  was 
approached  with  an  invitation  to  go  with  the  ex- 
plorers, but  he  was  persuaded  to  discharge  the  cargo 
and  fit  out  for  the  Antarctic.  In  the  view  of  Sec- 
retary of  the  Navy  Southard,  Pendleton's  experi- 


Another  Memorable  Exploring  Expedition     117 

ence  In  Antarctic  waters  made  his  presence  In  the 
expedition  imperative. 

In  the  meantime  Lieut.  Charles  Wilkes  was  se- 
lected to  go  as  astronomer  to  the  expedition,  and 
Southard  ordered  him  to  provide  all  the  Instru- 
ments which  would  be  needed  for  making  accurate 
surveys  on  the  coasts  to  be  explored.  On  this  order 
Wilkes  purchased  instruments  to  the  value  of 
$1,167.50  for  which  he  paid  with  his  own  money, 
and  he  also  bought  others  to  the  value  of  $3,248 
for  which  he  promised  to  pay. 

In  due  time  the  Peacock  and  the  Seraph  were  fit- 
ted for  the  expedition  and  the  force  of  scientists 
was  organized  and  held  awaiting  orders  to  join 
the  ships.  An  application  was  then  made  to  Con- 
gress for  a  small  appropriation  with  which  to  pay 
the  running  expenses  of  the  expedition. 

In  the  meantime,  however,  a  national  election  had 
been  held  and  Andrew  Jackson  became  President  in 
place  of  John  Quincy  Adams,  while  John  Branch 
succeeded  Samuel  L.  Southard  as  Secretary  of  the 
Navy.  Changes  in  the  membership  of  the  House 
of  Representatives  and  the  Senate  had  given  the 
new  Administration  full  control  of  the  Government. 
When  the  application  for  this  appropriation  came 
before  the  Senate  it  was  referred  to  the  Naval  Com- 
mittee, who,  on  February  23,  1829,  reported  that 
they  were  well  aware  "that  a  general  opinion  pre- 
vailed throughout  the  country  that  the  measure  had 


Ii8         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

received  the  deliberate  sanction  of  both  Houses  of 
Congress  and  that  the  appropriation  of  the  sum 
now  called  for  was  therefore  considered  as  a  matter 
of  course.  But  .  .  .  the  committee  was  still  of 
the  opinion  that  it  was  safer  to  delay  acting." 

Meantime  Lieutenant  Wilkes  carried  his  bill  for 
the  instruments,  which  he  had  been  ordered  to  buy, 
to  Secretary  of  the  Navy  John  Branch.  The  Secre- 
tary told  him  ''that  as  Congress  had  made  no  ap- 
propriation or  done  any  act  to  countenance  the  or- 
ders given"  for  purchasing  those  instruments,  he 
would  not  pay  the  bill.  Wilkes  was  therefore 
obliged  to  apply  to  Congress  for  "relief." 

The  brig  Seraph  was  returned,  "as  is  and  where 
is,"  to  Captain  Pendleton,  and  in  order  to  get  pay 
for  the  loss  of  his  voyage  to  Malaga  and  the  time 
and  money  spent  in  fitting  her  for  the  expedition,  he 
was  also  told  to  apply  for  "relief"  to  a  Congress 
that  was  hostile  to  everything  which  the  preceding 
Administration  had  done  or  countenanced,  even 
when  the  nation  as  a  whole  had  expressed  approval. 

The  incident  was  so  discreditable  that  the  facts 
might  well  have  been  allowed  to  lie  buried  in  the 
unread  archives  of  the  period  but  for  their  effect 
upon  Captain  Palmer  and  other  citizens  of  Stoning- 
ton.  To  them  the  arrogant  attitude  of  the  Jack- 
son Administration  seemed  little  short  of  a  personal 
affront,  and  their  natural  resentment  took  a  form 
which  was  a  rasping  rebuke.  Congress  had  re- 
fused to  send  the  expedition  on  the  ground  that  the 


Another  Memorable  Exploring  Expedition     119 

expense  was  too  great  for  the  nation  to  bear.  So 
the  people  of  Stonlngton  announced  that  they  would 
send  out  at  their  own  expense  two  vessels  well 
equipped,  and  carrying  a  force  of  scientists,  to  make 
the  desired  exploration  of  the  Antarctic  region. 
They  acted  in  the  spirit  which  had  prevailed  among 
our  sailors  of  the  sail  from  the  day  when  the  keel 
of  the  first  American  ship  was  stretched.  Said  Gov- 
ernor John  Winthrop,  when  writing  about  that 
ship — the  Blessing  of  the  Bay: 

"The  general  fear  of  a  want  of  foreign  commodi- 
ties ...  set  us  on  work  to  provide  shipping  of  our 
own." 

A  want — any  want — set  the  Yankee  sailor  of 
the  sail  "on  work."  Wanting  ships  with  which  to 
explore  the  stormy  waters  below  Cape  Horn  the 
people  of  Stonington  provided  them  regardless  of 
the  attitude  of  the  Jackson  Administration.  Cap- 
tain Edmund  Fanning  was  too  old  to  take  part  per- 
sonally in  such  a  voyage  but  he  was  able  and  willing 
to  take  the  lead  in  financing  it.  Captain  Benjamin 
Pendleton  and  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 
were  associated  with  him  as  financiers,  and  together 
they  took  the  risks  of  the  actual  exploration.  Two 
brigs,  the  Seraph  belonging  to  Captain  Pendleton, 
and  the  Annazvan  (also  written  Anawan)^  of  which 
Captain  Palmer  was  managing  owner,  were  pro- 
vided. Each  captain  took  command  of  his  own  ves- 
sel, of  course.    A  third  vessel,  the  schooner  Penguin, 


I20         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

a  schooner  of  84  tons,  was  added  to  the  expedition 
after  it  arrived  at  Staten  Island,  and  as  this  ex- 
pedition was  notable  in  the  annals  of  our  merchant 
marine  the  addition  of  the  Penguin  may  receive  a 
paragraph,    or   more. 

The  Penguin  was  under  the  command  of  Captain 
Alexander  Palmer,  the  younger  brother  of  Captain 
Nat,  of  whom  mention  has  been  made.  Captain 
Alex,  as  he  was  called,  had  taken  the  Penguin  on 
a  sealing  expedition  to  Staten  Island  in  1827,  with 
considerable  success,  though  he  was  not  yet  21  years 
old.  He  went  to  the  same  region  again  in  1828, 
and  in  the  month  of  October,  while  lying  in  North 
Port  Hatchet  Bay,  Staten  Island,  he  met,  as  pre- 
viously mentioned.  Commander  Henry  Foster  of 
the  British  sloop-of-war  Chanticleer,  which  was 
surveying  the  coasts  of  the  islands  in  the  Cape  Horn 
region. 

On  his  return  from  this  voyage  Captain  Alex 
found  preparations  in  hand  for  the  Stonington  ex- 
ploring expedition  in  search  of  the  islands  supposed 
to  have  been  seen  by  Captains  Swain  and  Macy.  He 
thereupon  fitted  out  for  another  sealing  expedition 
to  Staten  Island,  and  when  there  he  awaited  in 
North  Port  Hatchet  Bay  the  coming  of  the  explor- 
ing brigs  Annawan  and  Seraph. 

While  these  two  brigs  were  being  fitted  out,  not 
a  few  items  about  them  appeared  in  current  periodi- 
cals.    Thus,  Niles's  Register  printed  two  during  the 


Another  Memorable  Exploring  Expedition     121 

month  of  October,  1829.     On  the  3d  of  the  month 
it  quoted  the  following  from  the  National  Journal: 

"Polar  Expedition.  It  is  said  that  Mr.  Rey- 
nolds, the  lecturer  on  and  an  untiring  advocate  of 
an  expedition  to  the  south  pole,  although  defeated 
in  every  attempt  to  induce  the  government  to  aid 
his  enterprise,  has  succeeded  in  obtaining  the  assist- 
ance of  a  party  of  adventurous  capitalists,  and  is 
about  to  carry  his  long  cherished  design  into  effect. 
A  paragraph  in  the  New  Bedford  Mercury  states 
that  Mr.  Reynolds  and  Captain  Palmer  had  been  in 
that  place  for  some  days,  preparing  one  of  the  finest 
vessels  ever  built  in  that  or  any  other  port,  for  an 
exploring  expedition  to  the  South  Sea.  Captain 
Palmer  had  shipped  part  of  the  crew,  prepared  boats 
of  the  first  construction,  and  obtained  other  articles 
for  the  voyage.  The  brig  was  to  leave  New  Bed- 
ford, in  a  few  days,  for  New  York,  where  she  will 
receive  on  board  the  remainder  of  her  outfit,  previ- 
ous to  her  departure.  Nothing  is  said  as  to  any 
other  vessel  to  be  employed  in  the  service,  nor  is 
the  time  for  her  departure  stated.  It  is  understood 
that  the  expedition  is  to  be  under  the  direction  of 
Mr.  Reynolds,  and  it  will  depart  accompanied  by 
the  best  wishes  of  the  country  for  a  safe  voyage  and 
a  successful  result  of  the  enterprise." 

On  October  24th  the  Register  quoted  the  follow- 
ing from  the  New  York  Enquirer: 


122         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

"The  South  Sea  Expedition.  The  brig  Anna- 
wan,  the  flagship  of  the  expedition,  dropped  down 
to  the  lower  bay,  yesterday,  and  will  proceed  to  sea 
this  morning.  Thus,  after  three  years  of  perse- 
verance and  industry  Mr.  Reynolds  finds  himself 
upon  the  ocean,  in  search  of  the  undiscovered  islands 
of  the  south.  In  addition  to  the  commercial  impor- 
tance of  this  expedition  it  is  highly  important  in  a 
national  point  of  view.  Whatever  lands  may  be 
discovered  by  Mr.  Reynolds  and  his  enterprising 
associates  will  become  the  property  of  the  United 
States.  The  stores  of  science  will  be  Increased  by 
the  products  of  far-distant  islands,  as  yet  unknown 
to  civilized  man,  and  curiosity  may,  perchance,  be 
gratified  by  something  new. 

"We  visited  the  Annawan  on  Thursday.  She  Is  a 
fine  vessel  and  a  very  fast  sailer.  She  is  furnished 
with  an  excellent  library,  and  all  the  instruments 
necessary  for  such  an  expedition.  She  has  a  stout 
and  hardy  crew,  an  experienced  captain,  and  first  rate 
officers.  After  the  commercial  objects  of  the  expe- 
dition shall  have  been  accomplished,  Mr.  Reynolds 
intends  to  sail  round  the  icy  circle,  and  push  through 
the  first  opening  that  he  finds.     Success  to  him. 

"Mr.  R.  is  accompanied  by  Dr.  Eights,  of  Albany, 
a  gentleman  of  talents  and  scientific  accomplish- 
ments." 

Editor  Niles  of  the  Register  added  the  following 
comment  on   the   statement  that   any   islands   dis- 


Another  Memorable  Exploring  Expedition     123 

covered  would  become  the  property  of  the  United 
States : 

*'We  much  doubt  this.  We  should  suppose  that 
they  would  belong  to  Mr.  Reynolds  and  his  associ- 
ates— if  discovery  can  give  a  title!  It  is  a  private 
enterprise,  and  we  are  not  at  all  willing  that  the 
United  States  should  have  colonies." 

Another  record  of  the  expedition  is  found  in 
"Fanning's  Voyages"  (pp.  478-488),  in  a  report 
submitted  by  Captain  Pendleton  to  Captain  Edmund 
Fanning,  the  chief  financier  of  the  expedition.  This 
report  shows  that  the  expedition  was  much  more 
ambitious  than  the  newspaper  accounts  indicated. 
For,  after  locating  the  islands  supposed  to  lie  in 
the  seas  southwest  of  Cape  Horn,  the  vessels  were 
to  go  to  the  North  Pacific  to  explore  the  unknown 
waters  there.  It  was  not  doubted  that  the  islands 
below  Cape  Horn  would  be  found.  It  was  assumed 
that  full  cargoes  of  furs  would  be  secured  from 
them.  But  the  furs  were  to  be  shipped  home  from 
Valparaiso  on  some  handy  freighter,  and  then  the 
explorers  were  to  sail  on  to  the  Alaska  waters.  It 
was  intended  to  go  to  the  region  where  the  Pribilov 
Islands  with  their  herds  of  fur  seals  lie. 

Still  other  records  of  this  expedition  are  found 
in  notes  made  by  Captain  Alexander  Palmer,  but  if 
Captain  Nat  ever  wrote  anything  about  it  the  manu- 
script has  been  lost. 

It  appears,  now,  that  J.  N.  Reynolds  and  a  scien- 


124         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

tist  named  J.  F.  Watson  sailed  on  the  Annawan. 
Dr.  James  Eights,  a  naturalist  living  in  Albany,  was 
also  with  the  Annawan. 

The  Seraph  completed  her  outfit  at  Stonington 
and  sailed  on  October  i6,  1829,  under  orders  to 
meet  the  Annawan  "at  the  distance  of  four  leagues 
south  from  the  light  on  the  east  end  of  Long 
Island."  The  two  brigs  failed  to  meet,  however, 
because  of  "a  strong  breeze  from  the  eastward 
which  soon  increased  to  a  heavy  gale  and  so  con- 
tinued for  three  days."  Each  brig  therefore  headed 
away  for  North  Port  Hatchet  Bay,  in  Staten  Island, 
which  had  been  appointed  for  the  next  rendezvous. 

A  memorandum  left  by  Captain  Alexander 
Palmer  of  the  schooner  Penguin,  says  that  Captain 
Nat,  in  the  Annawan,  arrived  at  North  Port 
Hatchet  Bay,  Staten  Island,  on  January  5,  1830, 
and  found  the  Penguin  awaiting  him.  The  two  ves- 
sels remained  in  the  bay  until  January  14,  when 
they  sailed  for  the  Sea  Elephant  Islands,  in  the  South 
Shetland  group.  For  about  a  month  the  two  crews 
were  employed  gathering  such  seal  skins  as  could 
be  found  together  with  sea  elephant  oil.  Various 
harbors  were  visited,  including  Ship  Harbor  where 
the  wreck  of  the  brig  Clothier  lay  high  on  the  rocks. 

Soon  after  the  Palmers  left  North  Port  Hatchet 
the  Seraph  arrived.  She  remained  there  until  Janu- 
ary 22,  when  she  sailed  on  to  the  South  Shetlands. 
There  is  no  detailed  account  of  what  she  did  there, 
but  it  is  stated  that  she  did  not  meet  the  Palmers. 


Another  Memorable  Exploring  Expedition      125 

The  Annawan  and  the  Penguin  left  the  South 
Shetlands  on  February  23,  1830,  and  sailed  westerly 
to  search  for  the  two  Islands  supposed  to  exist  there, 
as  reported  by  the  whalers.  How  many  skins  and 
how  much  oil  they  had  secured  meantime  is  not 
known.  But  the  summer  season  was  now  well  spent 
and  the  weather,  bad  at  best,  grew  steadily  worse 
as  the  days  passed.  Snow  storm  followed  snow 
storm.  The  ice  formed  on  deck  and  on  the  rigging 
so  swiftly  that  the  crews  were  obliged  to  cut  it  away 
to  prevent  foundering.  It  was  with  extreme  diffi- 
culty that  they  could  handle  the  ropes  and  sails. 
They  were  continuously  wet  with  the  freezing  spray 
and  there  was  no  fire  in  either  the  cabin  or  the  fore- 
castle by  which  they  could  warm  their  stiffened 
limbs.  But  they  persevered  until  the  two  brigs  had 
covered  the  region  lying  between  the  parallels  of 
52°  and  62°  33'  south  latitude  and  the  meridians  of 
61°  and  103°  03'  west  longitude,  wherein  the  islands 
for  which  they  were  searching  were  supposed  to  lie. 
Captain  Alexander  Palmer  wrote  as  follows  about 
the  search: 

*'No  land  was  discovered.  Two  voyages,  as  it 
Is  termed,  were  broken  up.  Many  of  the  crew  were 
disabled.  .  .  .  This  cruise  furnished  an  example 
that  no  sealer  ever  wished  to  imitate,  namely  to 
search  for  land  southwest  of  Cape  Horn.  .  .  .  On 
March  19th  gave  up  the  search,  being  convinced 
that  the  reported  land  was  not  there." 


126         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

In  the  meantime  the  Seraph,  after  taking  a  few 
furs  at  the  Shetlands,  also  sailed  in  search  of  the 
islands  and  Captain  Pendleton's  report  says : 

"We  then  had  a  lengthy  cruise  of  much  anxiety 
and  suffering  toward  the  icy  region  for  the  dis- 
covery of  lands  to  the  westward  of  Palmer  Land, 
and  likewise  in  search  of  the  land  said  to  have  been 
seen  by  Captains  Macy  and  Gardiner  to  the  south- 
westward  of  Cape  Horn,  of  neither  of  which  we 
were  fortunate  enough  to  make  any  discovery  In  all 
that  time;  nor,  in  fact,  had  we  the  encouragement 
of  passing  in  the  vicinity  of  any  land  other  than  that 
afforded  by  the  occasional  sight  of  birds,  seals, 
drift,  &c. 

"By  this  time  our  crews  were  much  worn  down 
by  fatigue,  and  from  their  being  almost  constantly 
wet  In  this  region  of  rough  sea  and  cold  rugged 
weather,  with  at  the  same  time  alarming  symptoms 
of  that  dread  disease  the  scurvy  making  its  appear- 
ance; it  was  considered  most  advisable  to  bear  up 
and  proceed  for  the  coast  of  Chili,  there  to  refresh 
and  recruit  our  men,  and  to  replenish  our  wood  and 
water." 

The  Seraph  arrived  at  Mocha  Island  on  the  coast 
of  Chili  early  in  May  and  there  fell  in  with  the 
Annawan  and  the  Penguin.  The  three  captains  then 
began  discussing  the  voyage  to  the  North  Pacific, 
but  the  crews  of  all  three  vessels  at  once  refused  to 
^o.    They  had  shipped  under  the  lay  system  of  pay 


Another  Memorable  Exploring  Expedition     127 

— no  furs,  no  pay.  The  officers  were  buoyed  up  to 
endure  hardship  by  their  ambition  to  become  known 
as  successful  explorers.  In  spite  of — indeed,  be- 
cause of — their  failure  thus  far,  they  were  eager  to 
go  on,  but  the  sailors  had  no  such  incentive  and 
their  hope  of  profit  had  failed.  There  was  no 
attack  upon  the  officers,  but  when  they  learned  that 
further  exploration  was  before  them  they  began  to 
desert  in  spite  of  the  uncivihzed  condition  of  the  ter- 
ritory off  which  they  were  lying.  The  Pendleton 
report  says*: 

"It  became  necessary  for  Captain  Palmer  to  put 
into  Valparaiso  with  the  Annawan  and  deliver  a 
portion  of  his  crew  over  to  the  United  States  consul 
there.  This  was  the  cause  of  so  great  delay  that  It 
became  too  late  in  the  season  to  enable  me  to  act 
according  to  your  instructions  and  proceed  to  the 
unexplored  parts  of  the  northern  Pacific,  coast  of 
Japan,  eastern  coast  of  Asia,  &c." 

After  a  consultation  with  Captain  Nat,  Captain 
Pendleton  decided  to  go  down  to  the  lower  end  of 
Chili  and  establish  friendly  relations  with  the 
Aurocanlan  Indians,  hoping  thus  "to  procure  a  good 
collection  of  furs,  seal  skins,  &c.,"  which  could  be 
"forwarded  home,"  and  thus  employ  the  crews 
profitably  while  waiting  for  the  next  season  during 
which  they  could  sail  for  the  northern  waters.  But 
while  the  crews  were  at  first  satisfied  with  this  move, 
and   many   hair    seal    skins    and    some    furs    were 


128         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

secured,  the  sailors  began  to  desert  once  more  as 
soon  as  the  cruise  to  the  North  Pacific  was  again 
discussed.  It  then  became  necessary  to  sail  for 
home  before  the  crews  were  so  far  depleted  that 
the  vessels  could  not  be  handled. 

In  the  meantime  Reynolds  and  Watson  were 
landed  among  the  Indians,  with  whom  they  remained 
after  the  vessels  sailed  for  home,  hoping  thus  to 
establish  friendly  relations  for  the  benefit  of  future 
trade,  for  which  it  was  the  intention  of  Captain  Nat, 
at  least,  to  return. 

In  connection  with  this  exploring  expedition  it 
seems  worth  noting  that  in  1841,  Captain  Dough- 
erty, of  the  whaler  /.  Stewart,  reported  that  he  had 
seen  an  island  in  south  latitude  59°  20'  and  longitude 
119°  or  120°  west.  Then  Captain  Keates,  of  the 
ship  Louisa,  in  1859,  reported  an  island  in  the  same 
region.  This  island  is  marked  on  the  chart  as 
Dougherty's,  but  it  was  not  seen  by  the  ship  Nimrod, 
which  was  in  the  locality  named  in  1909,  nor  by 
the  magnetic  survey  ship  Carnegie,  which  was  there 
in  19 1 5.  A  letter  from  the  Hydrographic  Office, 
Navy  Department,  Washington,  dated  May  5, 
1 92 1,  says  the  office  has  no  record  of  Swain's 
Island,  and  that  the  existence  of  Dougherty's 
Island  "is  considered  somewhat  doubtful." 

Another  record  of  this  exploring  expedition  is  an 
advertisement,  clipped  from  a  local  paper,  of  the 
"cargo  of  the  brig  Seraph,  from  the  South  Seas,  to 
be  sold  at  auction  on  Monday,  August  29,  1831,  at 


Another  Memorable  Exploring  Expedition      129 

2  o'clock  P.  M."  She  had  brought  home  2,024  skins 
of  the  fur  seal  and  13,000  of  the  hair  seal.  The 
number  taken  by  the  Palmers  is  not  given  in  the 
records,  but  since  they  were  at  the  Shetlands  in 
advance  of  the  Seraph,  and  also  arrived  on  the  coast 
of  Chili  in  advance,  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose  that 
they  did  at  least  as  well  as  Captain  Pendleton.  It 
is  likely  that  a  small  profit  was  realized  out  of  the 
expedition. 

In  spite  of  energy  and  persistence,  the  chief  ob- 
ject of  the  expedition  remained  unachieved,  but  even 
so,  and  even  if  a  loss  was  incurred,  the  work  seems 
now  to  have  been  worth  while  if  only  as  an  illus- 
tration of  the  enterprise  of  the  American  sailor  of 
the  sail  in  the  days  when  the  American  merchant 
marine  was  making  its  most  vigorous  growth. 


CHAPTER  XII 

CAPTURED   BY   CONVICTS   ON  JUAN   FERNANDEZ 

WHILE  the  results  of  the  expedition  de- 
scribed In  the  last  chapter  ended  the 
ambition  of  the  Stonlngtonians  to  engage 
in  another  of  the  kind,  they  were  encouraged  by 
the  outlook  for  trade  on  the  west  coast  of  South 
America  to  make  one  more  venture  to  that  region. 
The  natives  at  various  points  on  the  coast  were  in 
the  habit  of  gathering  skins  of  both  kinds  of  seals, 
and  they  accumulated  the  hides  of  cattle  as  well. 
These  they  were  glad  to  exchange  for  goods  from 
the  United  States.  While  the  vast  heras  of  fur 
seals  which  had  formerly  resorted  to  the  island  of 
Juan  Fernandez  had  been  well-nigh  exterminated 
some  yet  came  to  the  beaches,  and  there  were  men 
living  on  the  island  (it  was  a  Chileno  penal  station) 
who  made  a  business  of  collecting  the  skins  for  sale 
to  passing  whalers. 

On  the  whole,  it  appeared  to  Captain  Palmer  that 
a  good  profit  might  be  made  and  he  fitted  out  the 
Annawan  for  trade  there.  Two  accounts  of  this 
voyage  remain.  One  was  written  from  memory  by 
Second  Mate  George  Hubbard,  sometime  after  the 
brig  returned  home.  The  other  was  written  by 
Frederick  T.  Bush,  formerly  U.  S.  Consul  at  Hong 

130 


Captured  by  Convicts  on  Juan  Fernandez      131 

Kong,  following  an  account  of  the  voyage  given 
him  by  Captain  Nat. 

The  Annawan  carried  a  crew  of  eleven  men,  all 
told,  and  Mrs.  Palmer  sailed  with  her  husband. 
Th  fact  that  the  wife  ventured  on  such  a  voyage 
shows  that  she  and  the  captain  enjoyed  life  together 
so  much  that  they  were  willing  to  risk  the  dangers 
rather  than  be  separated. 

On  the  way  to  the  Horn,  as  the  second  "mate 
wrote,  "we  improved  every  opportunity  of  making 
a  passage,"  which  means,  of  course,  that  the  cap- 
tain "carried  on."  Off  the  River  Plate  a  pampero 
broke  the  foretopsail  yard,  but  the  crew  soon  made 
and  crossed  a  new  one,  and  the  Annawan  continued 
to  improve  her  opportunities  for  making  a  passage. 
It  had  been  said  of  the  captain,  when  in  command 
of  the  brig  Francis ^  in  1827,  that  he  drove  her  "until 
the  staves,"  with  which  she  was  loaded,  "floated 
through  her  seams."  He  was  making  a  reputation 
for  swift  passages  that  was  to  be  of  value  to  him 
later. 

When  the  Horn  was  astern  the  Annawan  headed 
for  Juan  Fernandez.  Mrs.  Palmer  wanted  to  see 
the  island  made  famous  by  Alexander  Selkirk, 
whose  life  there  had  inspired  the  story  of  Robin- 
son Cr/isoe.  The  captain  hoped  to  secure  seal  skins 
and  he  was  confident  of  obtaining  quantities  of  fresh 
provisions.  The  Annawan  arrived  within  view  of 
the  island  on  the  last  day  of  December,  1831.  Says 
Hubbard^s  account: 


132         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

"In  the  morning,  being  quite  handy  to  the  Island, 
Captain  Palmer  took  our  small  boat,  with  two  sea- 
men, and  started  for  the  shore,  the  brig  lying  off 
and  on." 

About  two  hours  later  a  Chlleno  brig,  which  had 
also  been  lying  off  and  on,  eased  her  sheets  and  ran 
down  within  hail  of  the  Annawan,  where  one  of  her 
officers  told  the  American  crew  that  the  convicts  on 
the  Island  had  overpowered  their  keepers  and  were 
in  full  control. 

It  was  so.  The  Chilenos  had  supposed  that  the 
island  afforded  an  absolutely  safe  prison  for  their 
felons,  but  the  convicts  had  not  only  taken  charge 
of  the  island*;  they  were  at  that  moment  preparing 
to  use  the  Annawan  as  a  means  of  escaping  to  the 
mainland. 

When  the  Annawan  was  first  seen  approaching 
the  Island  the  convicts  had  been  greatly  troubled  be- 
cause they  supposed  she  would  hasten  to  Valparaiso 
and  bring  a  warship  to  subjugate  them.  But  when 
they  saw  the  captain  on  his  way  to  the  shore  they 
determined  to  capture  the  vessel  and  make  their 
escape  In  her.  To  this  end  a  squad  of  well-armed 
men  was  placed  in  ambush  near  the  usual  landing. 
Wholly  unsuspicious.  Captain  Palmer  came  to  the 
beach  where  he  and  his  men  pulled  the  boat  up  to 
a  safe  distance  above  the  tide.  Then  when  the 
three  started  up  the  slope  the  convicts  surrounded 
them,  blindfolded  their  eyes  and  led  them  to  the 


Captured  by  Convicts  on  Juan  Fernandez      133 

prison  chapel  where  the  leaders  In  the  mutiny  were 
in  waiting.  Any  attempt  to  resist  at  that  time  would 
have  been  suicidal  and  none  was  made. 

When  In  the  chapel  the  three  were  led  to  the 
altar,  turned  to  face  the  assembled  mob  and  then 
the  blinders  were  removed.  For  a  few  moments  no 
one  spoke  a  word.  The  captain  saw  before  him 
more  than  100  outlaws  of  whom  some  were  red- 
handed  highwaymen,  and  some  were  savage  pirates, 
the  offscourings  of  the  Seven  Seas,  who  had  fled  to 
the  Chileno  coast  to  escape  the  vengeance  due  for 
crimes  committed  elsewhere. 

Finally,  one  of  the  convicts  proposed  that  the 
captain  be  killed  as  a  first  step  In  the  work  of  cap- 
turing the  Annawan.  The  mob  shouted  approval. 
The  captain  was  again  blindfolded  and  was  then 
placed  against  one  wall  of  the  church  while  several 
men  with  loaded  muskets  were  ordered  to  take  a 
position  ready  to  shoot  him.  But  In  the  meantime, 
by  a  sign  and  a  spoken  appeal  the  captain  had  told 
any  one  In  the  mob  who  was  able  to  understand  him 
that  he  was  a  member  of  the  ancient  honorable 
fraternity  of  Freemasons — he  begged  for  help  In 
a  way  that  no  brother  Mason  ever  failed  to  recog- 
nize and  none  ever  ignored. 

The  convicts  were  a  hellish  crew,  but  among  them 
was  one  man,  a  political  prisoner,  who  was  a  Mason; 
and  as  It  happened  he  was  the  leader  who  had 
planned  the  overthrowing  of  the  prison  authorities. 
Very  adroitly,   now,   this  leader   explained  to   the 


134         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

mob  that  It  would  be  better  to  spare  the  life  of  the 
captain  and  take  him  along  to  handle  the  brig  in 
her  passage  with  the  convicts  to  the  mainland.  Then 
he  ostentatiously  told  the  captain  to  choose  between 
carrying  the  convicts  to  the  mainland  at  a  point 
which  they  should  choose,  or  facing  the  firing  squad. 
The  captain,  perceiving  that  this  leader  was  a 
brother  Mason,  at  once  agreed  to  take  orders  from 
him.     The  captain  was  thereupon  released. 

When  the  blinder  was  removed  from  his  eyes 
Captain  Palmer  suggested  that  he  should  send 
orders  to  his  mate  to  prepare  the  brig  for  the  com- 
pany to  come.  This  was  a  reasonable  thing  to  do, 
for  the  brig  was  in  no  shape  to  carry  so  many  pas- 
sengers, and  he  was  allowed  to  write  a  note  which 
his  sailors  carried  off  to  the  brig. 

First  of  all  in  the  note,  however.  Captain  Palmer 
told  the  mate  to  clear  out  a  spare  stateroom,  in 
which  bread  had  been  stored,  and  put  Mrs.  Palmer 
in  it  and  lock  the  door.  As  thus  prepared  this  room 
was  a  dungeon  and  it  was  arranged  so  that  no  port, 
even,  was  open  to  admit  air  or  light;  for  it  was 
absolutely  necessary  to  take  every  precaution  to 
prevent  the  outlaws  learning  that  she  was  on  board. 

When  this  work  was  done,  the  mate  went  on  with 
the  other  preparations  for  the  reception  of  the  con- 
victs, but  long  before  the  brig  was  ready,  the  mob 
came  howling  off  in  such  boats  as  the  settlement 
afforded.  And  when  they  arrived,  Mrs.  Palmer, 
sitting  in  her  darkened  prison,  heard  the  shrill  voices 


Captured  by  Convicts  on  Juan  Fernandez     135 

of  women  mingling  with  the  coarser  shouts  of  the 
men;  for  there  were  female  as  well  as  male  des- 
peradoes among  the  convicts. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  coming  of  the  women 
was  contrary  to  a  promise  made  by  the  mob  leader. 
Captain  Palmer  had  learned,  as  soon  as  he  was 
released  from  his  place  before  the  firing  squad,  that 
the  women  were  also  determined  to  go  in  the  brig, 
and  he  had  remonstrated  with  the  leader.  He  had 
perceived  instantly  that  if  the  women  were  taken  on 
board  they  would  necessarily  be  cared  for  in  the 
Annawan^s  cabin.  If  they  were  taken  into  the  cabin 
they  would,  sooner  or  later,  learn  that  Mrs.  Palmer 
was  in  the  spare  stateroom.  But  that  was  not  all 
the  trouble  to  be  feared  in  connection  with  the 
women,  for  it  was  certain  that  the  convicts  would 
fight  over  them,  perhaps  even  before  the  brig  could 
leave  the  island,  and  how  such  a  fight  would  end 
no  one  could  foresee.  At  all  hazards  Captain 
Palmer  was  determined  to  leave  the  women  on  the 
island. 

But  when  the  men  began  to  enter  the  small  boats 
in  order  to  go  off  to  the  brig,  the  women,  being  free 
to  roam  around  at  will,  ran  down  to  the  beach  and 
clambered  into  the  boats — and  here  they  were  along- 
side the  Annawan,  making  more  noise  than  a  flock 
of  gulls  around  a  dead  whale. 

But  as  they  climbed  over  the  rail,  gabbling  and 
laughing,  Captain  Nat  returned  to  the  Annawan, 
Ten  years  had  passed  since  he  had  stood  unabashed 


136         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

before  Captain  Bellingshausen  in  the  cabin  of  the 
Russian  frigate.  Then  he  had  been  tall,  slender 
and  boyish;  now  he  was  tall  and  powerful  and  of 
commanding  presence — a  fully  developed  autocrat 
of  the  quarterdeck. 

Walking  across  the  Annawan's  deck  to  the  rail 
over  which  the  women  were  climbing,  he  ordered 
them  all  to  return  at  once  to  the  land.  The  women 
screamed  and  squalled  and  begged  as  if  they  were 
suffering  tortures,  but  the  convicts — the  men — 
instinctively  obeyed  the  order  and  took  them  all 
back  to  the  beach.  One  may  search  the  records  of 
the  sea  for  all  times  without  finding  a  more  striking 
illustration  of  the  power  of  a  dominating  mind. 

Meantime,  Mrs.  Palmer,  sitting  in  the  darkness 
of  her  little  prison,  heard  the  shrieks  of  the  women, 
but  did  not  hear  the  imperious  order  of  her  husband. 
So  she  believed  that  the  women  were  being  tortured 
and  she  suffered  indescribably  through  sympathy 
and  through  fear  that  she  might  also  meet  the  fate 
which  seemed  to  come  upon  them. 

In  time  the  male  convicts  were  all  taken  on 
board — 104  of  them — and  the  brig  was  got  under 
way  for  the  mainland.  Then,  as  night  came  on,  the 
wind  failed.  The  convicts,  fearing  that  a  Chileno 
warship  would  come,  were  unable  to  sleep  and  they 
therefore  passed  the  night  on  deck  in  groups  that 
surged  to  and  fro,  cursing  incessantly,  and  always 
in  a  state  of  mind  where  but  a  slight  incentive  was 
needed  to  set  them  in  deadly  conflict  with  the  crew 


Captured  by  Convicts  on  Juan  Fernandez      137 

of  the  vessel  and  with  each  other.  At  daybreak  it 
was  seen  that  the  brig  had  drifted  nearer  to  the 
island  instead  of  making  headway  toward  the  main. 
At  that,  some  one  loudly  declared  that  the  brig's 
captain  had  held  her  there  In  order  to  deliver  her 
to  a  coming  man-o'-war,  and  the  cry  was  followed 
by  a  mutiny.  The  mob  took  possession  of  the 
vessel. 

For  a  time  the  outlook  was  most  serious,  but  the 
leader  of  the  mob  worked  with  the  captain  and  con- 
vinced the  mob  that  no  one  could  be  properly 
blamed  for  the  position  of  the  brig;  and  while  the 
argument  was  slowly  seeping  into  the  minds  of  the 
desperate  convicts,  a  fair  breeze  came  and  sent  the 
brig  on  her  way. 

Of  the  day-to-day  incidents  of  the  Annawan^s 
passage  to  the  coast  of  Chili  there  is  no  record,  but 
none  is  needed.  It  is  enough  to  know  that  the  wind 
was  so  light  that  ten  days  were  consumed  In  making 
the  400  miles,  and  that  during  all  that  time  more 
than  100  desperadoes  were  raging  around  the  deck 
of  the  little  brig,  day  and  night. 

During  this  time  Mrs.  Palmer  was,  of  course,  held 
in  her  prison.  The  captain  did  not  dare  to  speak 
to  her  or  to  make  a  definite  signal.  But  as  oppor- 
tunity was  afforded  he  paced  the  deck  above  her 
head  and  there  issued  orders  to  his  crew  in  a  voice 
which  she  could  hear,  and  he  thus  assured  her  that 
he  was  as  yet  unharmed  and  in  command. 

Finally,  the  land  was  seen  and  a  leading  breeze 


138         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

drove  the  Annawan  to  a  practicable  landing  north  of 
Copiapa,  where,  screaming  with  delight,  the  outlaws 
crowded  into  the  boats  and  were  landed. 

When  freed  from  the  convicts  the  Annawan  went 
to  Pisco,  Peru,  where  some  seal  skins  were  bought. 
Thence  she  went  to  Callao,  where  the  U.  S.  Ship 
Plymouth^  Master  Commandant  Francis  H.  Greg- 
ory, commanding,  happened  to  be  at  anchor.  To 
the  astonishment  of  the  Annawan's  company  the 
naval  sailors  manned  the  yards  and  gave  three  cheers 
as  the  brig  sailed  into  the  anchorage.  Later  it  was 
learned  that  Captain  Gregory  had  heard  about  the 
capture  of  the  Annawan  and  he  was  at  the  point  of 
sailing  to  look  for  her  when  she  came  into  port. 

Later  still  the  Annawan  went  to  Valparaiso 
where  it  was  learned  that  the  convicts,  after  landing, 
had  fled  inland.  Then  with  a  lack  of  foresight 
common  to  men  of  such  a  mental  caliber,  they  had 
preyed  upon  the  inhabitants — even  those  who  were 
friendly — until  an  appeal  to  the  Government  for 
help  brought  a  regiment  of  soldiers  who  rounded 
up  the  entire  mob. 

While  the  Annawan  was  yet  at  anchor  at  Val- 
paraiso the  convicts  were  brought  there  and  re- 
embarked  for  their  prison  island,  and  the  vessel 
which  carried  them  passed  close  to  the  brig.  The 
convicts  were  seen  to  be  a  most  disheartened  lot, 
but  when,  in  passing,  they  recognized  the  Annawan 
and  her  crew,  they  shouted  repeatedly, 


Captured  by  Convicts  on  Juan  Fernandez      139 

**Los  huenos  Americanos!  Los  huenos  Ameri- 
canos!** 

They  were  desperadoes,  the  offscourings  of  the 
Seven  Seas,  but  during  that  passage  of  ten  days  from 
Juan  Fernandez  to  the  mainland,  they  had  yet 
found  the  master  of  the  Annawan  and  her  crew 
muy  simpatico. 

An  incident  occurring  in  one  of  the  ports  visited, 
as  described  by  Second  Mate  Hubbard,  gives  an 
unusual  view  of  Captain  Palmer.  During  a  previous 
visit  to  the  port  Captain  Palmer  had  made  friends 
with  the  Captain  of  the  Port,  an  important  official 
on  that  coast.  Nevertheless,  when  the  Annawan 
returned  there,  and  Mate  Dudley  Robinson  took  a 
boat  ashore  to  get  water,  he  and  the  crew  were 
captured  by  a  band  of  armed  men  who  had  been 
hiding  in  the  brush  near  shore.  Why  this  was  done 
none  of  the  crew  could  learn.     Hubbard  continues : 

"Soon  after  Capt.  P.  was  Informed  of  the  arrest 
he  went  on  shore  and  found  out  the  trouble.  He 
became  greatly  enraged  and  called  on  me  to  bring 
my  gun ;  and  with  himself  with  a  gun  and  both  well 
loaded,  and  [with]  two  men  in  a  small  boat,  we 
landed  on  the  beach,  swearing  vengeance  unless  our 
men  were  immediately  released." 

Then  the  Captain  of  the  Port  came  on  the  run 
and  the  Annawans  were  released  and  provided  with 
water. 


140         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

Business  was  so  good  on  the  coast  that  when  the 
Annawan  was  filled  with  products,  Captain  Palmer 
freighted  a  ship  home  and  continued  trading  until 
July  9,  1833,  when  he  sailed  for  home.  The  last 
entry  in  the  brig's  log  (a  most  interesting  old  blank 
book  made  of  soft  paper  sewed  with  a  single  stitch 
into  a  cover  of  unhemmed  canvas)  contains  the  fol- 
lowing: 

"Wednesday,  25  Sept.       Remarks  on  board. 

"This  day  comes  in  with  moderate  breezes  from 
the  westward.  All  dragging  sail  set.  At  1 130  made 
Montaug  Light.  At  10  A.  M.  anchored  in  Stoning- 
ton  Harbor." 


CHAPTER  XIII 

THE  YANKEE   PACKETS 

AFTER  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer  re- 
turned home  from  the  voyage  to  the  Cape 
Horn  region,  described  In  the  last  chapter, 
he  entered  upon  a  career  which  is  of  especial  interest 
in  any  history  of  the  American  merchant  marine. 
For  ever  since  the  end  of  the  War  of  1812,  Ameri- 
can shipping  had  been  securing  a  leading  place  in 
the  trade  between  the  United  States  and  Europe, 
and  the  captain  was  now  to  take  a  prominent  part 
in  the  work  of  furthering  the  American  advance, 
and  In  sustaining  it  in  every  forward  step  made 
thereafter.  And  this  is  to  say  that  he  was,  first  of 
all,  to  become  a  leader  among  the  designers  and 
commanders  of  the  packet  ships  of  which  all  Ameri- 
cans then  made  boast;  and  later,  when  the  demand 
for  fast  ships  in  the  China  tea  trade  arose,  and 
brought  into  existence  what  have  since  been  called 
the  Yankee  clippers,  he  was  the  designer,  and  the 
captain  as  well,  of  the  first  of  that  famous  fleet. 
In  fact,  a  time  came  when  the  British  Admiralty 
were  so  enthusiastically  interested  in  a  clipper  of  his 
design  that  they  minutely  measured  her,  as  she  lay 
in  a  drydock,  hoping  thus  to  learn  the  secret  of  a 

141 


142         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

record  passage  which  she  had  made  from  Canton  to 
London. 

For  more  than  fifty  years  at  this  writing — in  fact, 
ever  since  the  Civil  War — the  editors  of  our  maga- 
zines and  of  our  newspapers  have  been  writing  over 
and  over  again  that  the  American  clipper  ships  were 
in  all  respects  superior  to  (meaning  more  efficient 
than)  all  other  ships  afloat  in  their  day.  So  often 
has  this  statement  appeared  in  print  that  every  back- 
woodsman in  the  nation  has  read  it,  and  it  is  uni- 
versally accepted  as  true  beyond  question. 

Unhappily,  however,  a  study  of  the  situation 
shows  that  while  some  American  ships  were  more 
efficient  than  any  affoat  in  their  classes,  the  bald 
statement,  as  printed,  lacks  discrimination;  and 
ignorance  of  the  facts  is  especially  deplorable  be- 
cause our  legislators  who  are  now  (1921)  trying 
to  sustain  our  over-built  merchant  fleet,  could  serve 
the  industry  far  better  if  they  knew  just  when  and 
in  what  respects  our  splendid  ships  of  the  sail, 
called  packets  and  clippers,  were  superior  to  those 
of  European  construction;  and  when  and  wherein 
those  same  ships  failed  to  maintain  the  standing 
which  they  had  honestly  secured. 

Because  Captain  Palmer  had,  as  said,  a  notable 
part  in  the  work  of  giving  our  ships  of  the  sail  their 
reputation,  and  because,  too,  he  was  concerned  when 
those  ships  lost  caste,  the  whole  story  of  the  fleet 
as  well  as  his  work  with  them,  must  be  told  in  con- 
siderable detail. 


The  Yankee  Packets  143 

It  is  Important  to  observe  first  of  all  that  our 
clippers  composed  a  fleet  entirely  distinct  from  that 
of  the  packets.  The  packets  were  passenger  car- 
riers as  well  as  freighters  plying  between  the  prin- 
cipal ports  of  the  United  States  and  Europe,  and 
they  sailed  on  regular  schedules.  The  clippers  were 
freighters  only  and  they  were  built  for  the  China 
trade.  The  packets  sailed  when  the  hour  came, 
regardless  of  the  amount  of  cargo  on  board.  The 
clippers  were  loaded  to  the  hatch  coamings  at  every 
passage. 

The  name  packet  was  first  applied  to  a  vessel  by 
the  British.  Because  the  Empire  was  spread  around 
the  world  It  was  necessary  to  provide  means  for 
carrying  mails  at  frequent  and  regular  Intervals  be- 
tween London  and  the  various  colonies.  For  this 
purpose  the  Admiralty  built  swift  brigs,  and  one  of 
these  was  despatched  at  stated  intervals  to  this  and 
that  port  in  the  colonies.  Perhaps  it  was  because 
the  letters  were  done  up  In  packets  that  the  vessels 
came  to  be  called  by  the  same  name. 

As  the  mall  lines  did  not  receive  a  profitable  in- 
come from  the  freight  and  passengers  carried.  In 
addition  to  the  mails,  no  one  thought  it  worth  while 
to  establish  a  packet  line  at  private  expense,  even 
between  such  ports  as  New  York  and  Liverpool, 
until  long  after  the  American  colonies  had  developed 
Into  an  independent  nation.  But  in  the  meantime  a 
packet  business  had  developed  on  the  Hudson  River 
which  proved  to  be  at  once  remarkably  convenient 


144         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

for  shippers  and  profitable  for  the  owners  of  the 
vessels.  Because  of  the  character  of  the  traffic  on 
the  river  the  sloops  which  were  used  for  passengers 
as  well  as  freight,  had  regular  days  of  departure 
from  the  various  towns  and  for  the  return,  as  well. 
They  sailed  from  their 'landings  at  the  advertised 
time  regardless  of  the  amount  of  freight  on  board, 
or  of  the  number  of  passengers. 

Because  of  the  regularity  of  the  sailings,  farmers 
drove  forty  miles  and  more  to  deliver  produce  to 
sloops  bound  down  to  New  York  and  passengers 
came  from  towns  in  Massachusetts  to  Poughkeepsie 
to  sail  thence  to  New  York  rather  than  travel  by 
stage  over  the  highway  through  Connecticut. 

The  packet  service  which  originated  on  the  river 
was  naturally  extended  to  the  alongshore  trades, 
and  in  every  such  extension  it  was  found  that  a 
regular  service  was  more  profitable  than  one  where- 
in the  vessel  awaited  a  full  cargo  before  sailing. 

In  1816,  while  young  Palmer  was  sailing  before 
the  mast  on  Long  Island  Sound,  Jeremiah  Thomp- 
son, Isaac  Wright,  Benjamin  Marshall,  and  a  few 
other  capitalists  of  New  York,  organized  a  com- 
pany to  establish  a  packet  service  between  New  York 
and  Liverpool.  It  is  to  be  noted  that  this  organiza- 
tion was  effected  to  provide  an  improved  service. 
Theretofore  the  ships  in  the  Liverpool  trade  had 
sailed  only  when  they  were  full  of  cargo,  and  the 
consequent  delays  were  especially  annoying  to  pas- 
sengers, for  the  reason  that  they  were  kept  waiting 


The  Yankee  •Packets  145 

in  uncertainty  for  days  and  even  weeks  at  a  stretch. 
When  the  new  line  was  established  passengers  and 
shippers  alike  were  fully  assured  that  a  ship  would 
sail  on  the  first  day  of  each  month,  regardless  of 
the  amount  of  freight  in  the  hold  or  the  number  of 
passengers  in  the  cabin;  and  regardless  of  the 
weather,  as  well. 

The  ships  provided  were  not  the  largest  afloat 
(400  to  500  tons),  but  they  were  of  the  best  con- 
struction— coppered  and  copper-fastened.  They 
were  fit  to  carry  sail  in  all  weathers  and  the  cabin 
accommodations  were  the  most  comfortable  afloat. 

The  success  of  this  line,  which  was  called  the 
Black  Ball,  was  so  great  that  other  lines  were  soon 
established  in  competition,  and  lines  from  other 
ports  also  came  into  existence.  Of  these  American 
packet  lines  McCulloch's  "Commercial  Dictionary," 
published  in  London  in  1839,  contained  the  follow- 
ing in  its  description  of  the  commerce  of  New  York: 

"The  establishment  of  regular  packet  lines  from 
New  York  to  foreign  ports,  and  also  to  every  prin- 
cipal port  in  the  United  States,  has  produced  a  new 
era  in  the  commerce  of  the  city,  and  redounded 
equally  to  the  benefit  of  the  enterprising  individuals 
by  whom  they  were  projected,  and  the  public.  The 
principal  intercourse  is  carried  on  with  Liverpool; 
there  being  about  twenty  packet  ships  distributed 
in  four  lines  employed  at  present  (1836)  in  main- 
taining a  regular  communication  with  that  port.    A 


146         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

dozen  packet  ships  are  also  employed  in  the  trade 
between  New  York  and  London,  and  fifteen  in  the 
trade  between  New  York  and  Havre.  These  ships 
vary  in  size  from  450  tons,  the  burden  of  the 
smallest,  to  800  tons.  Their  tonnage  has  latterly 
been  increasing;  and,  at  an  average,  it  may  now  be 
estimated  at  about  600  tons. 

"These  ships  are  all  American  property  and  built 
chiefly  in  New  York.  They  are  probably  the  finest 
and  fastest  sailing  merchant  vessels  in  the  world; 
being  beautifully  modelled,  of  the  best  workman- 
ship, and  fitted  up  with  every  convenience  for  pas- 
sengers, and  in  the  most  expensive  style.  The 
safety,  regularity  and  expedition  with  which  they 
perform  their  voyages  is  quite  astonishing.  The 
average  length  of  a  voyage  from  Liverpool  and 
Portsmouth  to  New  York  may  be  estimated  at  about 
34  days,  and  from  the  latter  to  the  former  at  about 
20  days.  The  Independence^  of  730  tons,  Captain 
Nye,  made  the  voyage  from  New  York  to  Liverpool, 
in  the  course  of  the  present  year,  in  14  days;  and 
the  Toronto,  of  650  tons,  Captain  Griswold,  made 
the  voyage  from  New  York  to  Portsmouth  in  the 
same-time.  And  it  is  material  to  observe  that  these 
voyages  are  not  reckoned  from  land  to  land  but 
from  port  to  port, 

"Cabin  passage  to  New  York  from  London  and 
Liverpool  35  guineas;  from  New  York  to  London 
and  Liverpool  140  dollars;  a  cabin  passage  to  New 
York  from  Havre  140  dollars  and  from  New  York 


The  Yankee  Packets  147 

to  Havre  the  same.  This  includes  provisions,  wines, 
beds,  &c.,  so  that  the  passengers  have  no  occasion 
to  provide  anything  except  personal  apparel. 

"Each  ship  has  a  separate  cabin  for  ladies;  each 
stateroom,  in  the  respective  cabins,  will  accommo- 
date two  passengers;  but  a  whole  stateroom  may  be 
secured  for  one  individual  at  the  rate  of  i>^  pas- 
sage, that  is  52j^  guineas  to  New  York. 

"The  rate  of  steerage  passage  varies,  in  the  course 
of  the  year,  considerably;  depending  upon  the  num- 
ber of  ships  and  the  number  of  passengers  going  at 
the  time.  ...  It  fluctuates  from  three  to  six 
guineas  for  each  full-grown  person;  and  children 
under  fourteen  years  are  taken  at  half  price.  .  .  . 
For  these  rates  the  ship  provides  nothing  but  fire 
and  water;  the  passengers  provide  their  own  pro- 
visions, bedding,  &c. 

"Steam  Packets. — It  has  been  proposed  to  es- 
tablish steam  packets  between  New  York  and 
Valentia  harbour,  on  the  west  coast  of  Ireland;  but 
as  yet  little  progress  has  been  made  in  the  under- 
taking. It  may  be  doubted,  indeed,  seeing  how  well 
the  intercourse  is  maintained  by  the  sailing  packets, 
whether  the  introduction  of  steam  packets  would  be 
of  material  service." 

The  "Dictionary"  also  says  that  the  prices 
charged  passengers  by  the  packets  were  always  at 
least  40%  higher  than  those  of  the  hit-or-miss  car- 
riers, and  in  some  cases  they  were   100%  higher. 


148         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

The  freight  rates  of  the  packets  were  around 
33  1/3%  higher.  And  that  Is  to  say  that  the  ships 
which  gave  the  most  satisfactory  service  secured  the 
cream  of  the  traffic  (more  especially  the  package 
goods),  and  all  at  a  highly  profitable  rate.  Service 
was,  and  always  Is,  worth  an  extra  price. 

The  exigencies  of  the  packet  trade  naturally  cre- 
ated a  demand  for  captains  who  were  able  to  handle 
ships  under  all  circumstances,  and  more  especially 
to  keep  them  going  at  the  highest  possible  speed.  A 
packet  captain  needed,  first  of  all,  a  knowledge  of 
what  his  ship  could  endure  under  a  press  of  canvas 
— he  needed  to  know  when  he  might  spread  more 
canvas  to  the  gale  and  when  he  must  reef  down 
to  save  the  spars.  Having  this  knowledge  It  was 
imperative  that  he  should  also  have  the  courage  to 
carry  sail  when  an  ordinary  captain  would  reef  down 
— to  carry  as  much  sail  in  the  midwatch  as  in  the 
morning  watch.  It  was  a  courageous  seaman  who 
could  order  the  crew  to  shake  out  the  reefs  in  the 
topsails  at  the  call  of  the  watch  at  midnight,  even 
though  the  power  of  the  gale  had  moderated  some- 
what. 

Of  little  less  Importance  was  the  personal  bear- 
ing which  made  the  crew  feel  that  the  captain  was 
an  absolute  monarch  whose  orders  iuust  be  obeyed 
under  all  circumstances.  In  pleasant  weather  this 
was  a  matter  of  less  Importance,  but  when  the  ship 
was  driven  until  the  timbers  groaned  and  the  rig- 
ging shrieked  under  the  strain,   it  was  absolutely 


The  Yankee  Packets  149 

necessary  that  the  crew  run  with  all  their  might  at 
the  order  to  reef  down.  It  was  only  by  their  utmost 
exertions  that  the  crew  could  then  save  the  canvas 
or  even  the  ship  itself  from  destruction,  and  a  man 
who  could  compel  them  to  work  in  that  way  was 
needed.  The  owners  of  the  packet  lines  searched 
the  ports  of  the  nation  to  find  the  men  they  needed. 

Because  many  books,  and  more  particularly  novels, 
have  declared  that  the  seamen  were  brutally  treated 
on  the  American  packets,  it  seems  worth  while  to 
give  a  paragraph  to  the  facts  here.  While  the 
packets  were  increasing  in  number  and  efficiency 
it  appears  that  seamen  were  scarce.  To  keep  their 
ships  well  manned  the  packet  captains  paid  higher 
wages  than  any  others  in  the  world.  When  the 
foremast  hand  in  the  navy  received  but  $12  a  month 
the  sailors  on  the  packets  were  paid  $17  to  $18. 
There  is  a  record  of  a  packet  race  in  which  one  ship 
(the  Sheridan)  carried  a  crew  of  forty  picked  men 
who  received  $25  a  month.  The  food  supplied  the 
sailors  was  of  good  quality  and  ample  in  quantity. 

Because  of  these  conditions  and  because  the  pas- 
sage was  usually  short  a  remarkable  class  of  men 
came  to  the  packet  forecastles.  They  were  all  for- 
eigners save  a  few  American  youngsters  shipped 
solely  with  a  view  to  promotion — never  to  join  the 
forecastle  "labor  class."  There  never  was  a  fore- 
castle class  among  American  seamen.  The  for- 
eigners were  a  husky  lot  on  the  topsail  yard,  but  as 
a  rule  men  who  preferred  this  service  because  it 


150         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

transferred  them  swiftly  from  the  brothels  of  one 
port  to  those  of  another.  They  were  well  able  to 
"hand,  reef  and  steer,"  but  they  knew  nothing  of 
the  nice  work  of  the  "marlinspike  sailor,"  because 
they  never  had  opportunity  to  learn  It.  Such  work 
was  done  on  the  long  voyages  only. 

When  these  foreigners  came  for  the  first  time  to 
the  packets  they  had  sea  habits  which  usually  made 
trouble.  The  best  of  them  came  from  the  service  of 
the  British  East  India  Company  ships  all  of  which 
sent  down  royal  yards  every  night,  even  in  the  finest 
weather,  and  whereon  the  topgallant  sails  were 
furled  and  a  reef  was  turned  into  the  topsails  when- 
ever there  was  the  least  sign  of  worse  weather. 
Naturally  such  sailors  moved  In  a  leisurely  fashion 
— at  first.  A  man  who  had  been  called  to  shorten 
sail  might  stop  long  enough  to  take  a  chew  of  to- 
bacco before  responding.  He  was  also  likely  to 
fail  In  showing  the  respect  due  to  a  superior  officer, 
for  discipline  was  slack  on  most  European  ships,  but 
the  unpardonable  sin  was  failure  to  "show  willing" 
when  ordered  to  work.  As  to  the  worst  class  of 
foreign  sailors  they  were  simply  the  offscourings  of 
the  ports — vicious  brutes  who  were  always  looking 
for  trouble.  Taken  as  a  whole.  It  must  be  said  that 
the  most  difficult  crews  to  control  that  were  found 
afloat  in  the  packet  days  were  those  in  the  packet 
forecastles. 

The  master  of  a  packet  needed  knowledge,  skill, 
and  courage  as  a  seaman,  but  more  than  all  else 


The  Yankee  Packets  i^t 

needed  the  ability  to  maintain  discipline  at  all  times 
while  yet  influenced  by  a  strong  sense  of  justice. 
Finally  he  needed  the  tact  by  which  selfish,  sick  and 
unreasonable  passengers  are  handled  when  at  sea. 
As  said,  the  owners  of  the  packets  of  New  York 
were  constantly  searching  the  ports  of  the  nation  for 
captains  who  were  in  all  respects  fit  for  the  impor- 
tant post  on  the  quarterdeck  of  a  Liverpool  liner. 

They  were  searching  when  Captain  Palmer  re- 
turned from  the  voyage  around  the  Horn  in  the 
Annawan,  and  they  then  came  to  hear  the  story  of 
his  adventure  with  the  mutinous  convicts.  The  cap- 
tain was  already  well  known  among  owners  of 
coasters,  at  least.  They  knew  that  he  had  non- 
chalantly sailed  a  fifty-foot  sloop  through  the  gales 
and  among  the  clashing  ice-fields  on  the  rim  of  the 
Antarctic  Continent,  and  that  he  had  fitted  out  and 
sailed  a  brig  on  an  exploring  expedition  through  the 
unknown  seas  southwest  of  Cape  Horn.  They  had 
discussed  his  ability  as  a  diplomat  when  dealing  first 
with  the  sensitive  lieutenants  of  Bolivar  and  then 
with  the  titled  and  snobbish  officers  in  command  in 
Cuba — officers  who  held  all  Americans  in  contempt. 
To  the  record  thus  made  was  added  now  the  story 
of  the  Annawan  at  Juan  Fernandez  and  the  owners 
of  the  packets  were  convinced  that  the  young  cap- 
tain from  Stonington  was  of  the  breed  needed  for 
packet  ship  command. 

The  packet  manager  to  act  first  on  the  opinion 
that  Captain  Palmer  was  of  the  right  build,  was 


152         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

E.  K.  Collins,  managing  owner  of  a  line  of  ships 
trading  between  New  York  and  New  Orleans.  He 
placed  the  captain  in  command  of  the  ship  Himts- 
ville.  It  is  worth  noting  that  Captain  Alexander  S. 
Palmer,  the  young  brother  who  had  sailed  on  the 
exploring  expedition  in  the  schooner  Penguin,  was 
also  taken  into  this  service  and  given  the  command 
of  the  Louisville. 

As  the  reader  knows,  the  New  Orleans  service 
was  peculiar  in  one  respect.  The  passengers  who 
were  carried  were  usually  from  the  slave-states — 
either  slave  owners  or  in  full  sympathy  with  slave 
owning.  Those  people  were,  as  a  rule,  seriously 
prejudiced  against  every  one  of  the  Yankee  breed. 
To  hold  the  good  will  of  these  patrons  of  the  line 
without  a  sacrifice  of  principle  required  diplomacy; 
but  it  is  a  matter  of  record  that  Palmer  w^as  called 
"Captain  Nat"  in  New  Orleans  as  he  was  in  Nev/ 
York. 

While  Captain  Palmer  was  in  command  of  the 
Hiintsville,  Collins  was  considering  the  feasibility  of 
establishing  a  new  packet  line  between  New  York 
and  Liverpool.  The  five  lines  already  in  that  trade 
had  given  good  satisfaction,  as  McCulloch's  "Dic- 
tionary," quoted  above,  said,  but  Collins  was  of  the 
opinion  that  the  service  rendered  might  be  improved. 
The  care  and  comforts  given  the  passengers,  as  he 
supposed,  were  not  quite  up  to  date,  and  he  was 
contemplating  the  initiation  of  a  superior  service. 

To  learn  how  Liverpool  people  might  regard  the 


The  Yankee  Packets  153 

establishing  of  a  new  line,  Collins  sent  Captain 
Palmer  there  in  1835.  While  the  report  the  cap- 
tain made  on  his  return  has  been  lost,  it  appears 
that  Collins,  and  his  associates  in  the  New  Orleans 
line,  were  convinced  that  the  contemplated  line 
would  prove  to  be  a  commercial  success.  When  they 
had  come  to  this  decision  they  determined  that  new 
ships,  especially  designed  for  the  trade,  should  be 
built,  and  Captain  Palmer  was  employed  to  make 
the  model  and  superintend  the  building. 

For,  during  all  the  years  since  he  had  listened 
to  the  discussions  among  the  ship  carpenters  in  his 
father's  yard  at  Stonington,  Captain  Palmer  had 
worked  over  and  dreamed  about  models  of  ships. 
When  telling  what  he  was  doing  while  pacing  the 
deck  of  the  fog-bound  Hero,  on  his  return  from  the 
shores  of  the  Antarctic  Continent,  he  said  he  was 
''building  castles  in  the  air."  We  may  believe,  from 
what  we  know  of  his  habit  of  thought,  that  he  laid 
out  a  shipyard  beside  each  of  those  castles  and 
that  each  yard  was  provided  with  an  ample  loft 
wherein  the  dreamer  was  to  lay  down  the  lines  of 
many  ships  of  improved  models.  At  any  rate  it 
was  the  captain's  manifest  and  oft-expressed  interest 
in  the  improvement  of  shipping  that  led  Collins  to 
employ  him  as  the  designer  of  the  Dramatic  Line  of 
packets,  as  the  new  fleet  was  named. 


CHAPTER  XIV 

COMMODORE    OF   THE   DRAMATIC    LINE 

A  RECORD  of  the  work  done  in  Brown  &  Bell's 
shipyard,  at  the  foot  of  Stanton  Street, 
■  New  York  City,  between  the  years  1821 
and  1847  (printed  in  Hunt's  Merchants'  Magazine, 
December,  1848),  shows  that  four  ships  were  built 
there  for  Collins's  Dramatic  Line,  as  follows: 

In  1836  the  Garrick  and  the  Sheridan  were 
launched.  Both  were  from  the  same  model  and  each 
measured  927  tons.  In  1837  the  Siddons  was  built 
from  the  same  model  as  the  other  two,  and  finally, 
in  1839,  the  Roscius  was  built  from  a  new  and  im- 
proved model,  her  measurement  being  1,009  tons. 
A  description  of  the  Roscius,  which  was  printed  in 
the  New  York  Express  at  the  time  she  was  launched, 
runs  as  follows : 

"We  have  from  time  to  time  given  descriptions 
of  the  various  ships  which  have  been  put  afloat.  .  .  . 
We  have  now  another  to  add — the  ship  Roscius, 
built  by  E.  K.  Collins,  belonging  to  the  Dramatic 
Line,  and  to  be  commanded  by  Captain  John  Col- 
lins. She  is  the  largest  that  has  yet  been  built,  and 
for   strength   and  beauty  is   a   noble   specimen  of 

154 


Commodore  of  the  Dramatic  Line       155 

American  shipbuilding.     The  following  are  her  di- 
mensions : 

"Burden,  1,100  tons;  length  of  main  deck,  170 
feet;  length  of  spar  deck,  180  feet;  breadth  of  beam, 
36^  feet;  depth  of  hold,  22  feet;  height  of  cabin, 
6^2  feet;  height  from  keelson  to  main  truck,  187 
feet;  length  of  main  yard,  75  feet." 

To  describe  in  detail  the  velvet  used  upon  the 
sofas,  the  Wilton  carpets  on  the  cabin  floor,  the 
"scarlet  marino"  drapery,  the  "white  curtains"  and 
other  features  of  the  cabin,  as  the  Express  did, 
would  require  too  much  space.  It  is  enough  to  say 
that  she  was  in  this  matter  more  luxuriously  pro- 
vided than  any  ship  on  salt  water.  Perhaps  it  should 
also  be  noted  that  she  cost  $100,000,  or  $100  a  ton, 
and  was  therefore  the  most  expensive  ship  in  the 
transatlantic  trade.  It  was  not  because  we  could 
build  wooden  ships  at  a  less  cost  than  the  Europeans 
that  our  packets  dominated  the  North  Atlantic.  It 
was  because  we  could  and  did  build  the  most  efficient 
ships  for  the  trade. 

The  peculiarities  of  the  models  of  our  ships  shall 
be  considered  in  another  chapter  wherein  the  work 
of  Captain  Palmer  in  developing  the  famous  fleet 
of  American  clipper  ships  is  described.  Here  it 
may  suffice  to  say  that  while  only  one  of  the  four 
ships  of  this  line  ever  broke  the  record  for  swift 
passages  across  the  Atlantic  in  either  direction,  they 
stood  at  the  head  of  the  procession  of  the  American 


156         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

packets  for  all  around  efficiency  before  the  first 
clipper  ship  was  designed  or  even  thought  of.  That 
is  to  say,  the  record  of  the  ships  as  a  fleet — or  say 
squadron — for  continuous  good  and  profitable  work, 
excelled  the  records  of  the  other  lines  of  packets. 
The  Dramatic  Line  obtained  and  held  its  lead  among 
the  packets  because  its  ships,  year  in  and  year  out, 
were  the  most  dependable  afloat. 

With  the  exception  of  the  Roscitis,  Captain 
Palmer  took  command  of  each  of  these  ships  for 
one  voyage  when  it  w^as  put  in  commission.  He  was 
the  commodore  of  the  finest  fleet  of  ships  in  the 
North  Atlantic,  just  twenty-two  years  after  he  had 
shipped  as  a  boy  of  fourteen  on  a  blockade-runner, 
on  Long  Island  Sound,  during  the  War  of  18 12.  In 
those  days  sailormen  used  to  hold  long  arguments 
over  the  question  as  to  whether  the  most  efficient 
ship  masters  were  those  who  began  sea  life  before 
the  mast  or  as  clerks  in  the  cabin.  In  the  vernacular 
the  question  was :  Is  it  better  to  crawl  in  through  the 
hawse  pipes  and  work  your  way  aft,  or  to  blow  in 
through  the  cabin  windows?  The  question  is  yet 
discussed  in  a  mild,  academic  way,  with  no  decision 
in  view,  for  the  reason  that  good  captains  have  come 
to  the  quarterdeck  by  both  routes ;  but  when  the  ques- 
tion was  argued  in  the  old  days  those  who  favored 
the  forecastle  route  were  able  to  point  with  pride  to 
Captain  Nat  Palmer,  one  who  arrived  by  working 
his  way  aft. 

Of  Captain  Palmer's  life  as  a  captain  in  the  Liver- 


Commodore  of  the  Dramatic  Line        157 

pool  trade  few  stories  are  remembered  [there  Is  one 
to  be  related  in  the  next  chapter]  because  he  never 
had  any  trouble  with  his  crews  or  any  adventures. 
His  ship  went  to  sea,  made  her  passage,  discharged 
her  cargo,  took  on  another  and  returned  home. 
Passengers  and  cargoes  were  delivered  in  excellent 
order.  He  was  highly  esteemed  because  his  voyages 
were  uneventful.  He  earned  the  highest  praise  be- 
stowed by  ship  owners  and  other  alongshore  people 
when  it  was  said  of  him  that  "he  never  cost  the 
underwriters  a  cent." 

As  Captain  Palmer  was,  during  these  years,  grow- 
ing wealthy — gaining  through  faithful  work  a  posi- 
tion among  the  "capitalistic  class" — a  paragraph 
about  the  pay  of  the  packet  captains  may  be  worth 
giving.  Like  that  of  the  others  in  the  trade  the  cap- 
tain's pay — his  regular  salary — was  $30  a  month. 
To  this  absurd  sum,  however,  was  added  5%  of  the 
money  received  for  freight,  25%  of  the  money  paid 
for  cabin  passages,  and  all  the  money  received  for 
carrying  the  mails.  The  captain  was  also  allowed 
to  carry  his  wife,  board  free. 

To  get  an  idea  about  the  amount  of  freight  money 
collected  for  passage,  here  is  a  note  about  the 
Dramatic  Line  ship  Garrick.  She  was  driven  ashore 
on  the  Jersey  Beach  in  January,  1841,  and  Niles's 
Register,  when  reporting  the  fact,  announced  that 
she  was  bringing  "cargo  estimated  to  be  worth 
400,000  dollars — though  she  was  not  more  than  one- 
third  loaded."     For  the  cargo  on  a  single  passage 


158         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

the  packets  sometimes  received  from  $30,000  to 
$50,000  as  freight  money,  and  on  this  the  captain 
collected  5%.  The  number  of  passengers  varied 
from  20  to  100.  Because  of  his  very  great  popu- 
larity among  travelers  that  frequented  the  packets, 
Captain  Nat  had  a  greater  number  in  his  cabin  than 
the  average  ship — say  400  in  the  course  of  a  year, 
at  $140  each,  of  which  he  received  25%.  Of  the 
number  of  letters  carried  no  estimate  is  to  be  found, 
but  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  postage  rate  in 
those  days  was  24  cents  per  >^  oz. 

As  said.  Captain  Palmer  grew  rich  rapidly  after 
he  entered  the  packet  service.  And  in  connection 
with  this  matter  it  is  to  be  noted  that  he,  like  all  the 
captains  in  the  trade,  owned  a  share  of  a  sixteenth 
or  an  eighth  in  every  ship  he  commanded,  and  every 
ship  was  expected  to  earn  her  cost  in  every  year  she 
was  afloat. 

While  the  records  of  the  voyages  which  the  cap- 
tain made  in  the  Liverpool  service  are  devoid  of 
such  incidents  as  strandings  and  collisions  and  fires 
in  the  hold  and  dismastings  during  the  gales,  there 
is  one  feature  of  his  work  as  a  master  that  may  yet 
be  described,  and  that  was  his  method  of  taking  the 
ship  from  her  pier  to  sea,  and  from  the  sea  to 
her  pier,  when  wind  and  tide  favored.  People  who 
go  to  the  New  York  piers  in  modern  days  to  see 
their  friends  depart  for  Europe  observe  that  the 
captain  of  the  steamer,  though  perched  on  a  high 
bridge,   is  an  inconsequential  figure — one,  in  fact, 


Commodore  of  the  Dramatic  Line        159 

who  Is  not  commonly  noticed  by  the  people  who  are 
standing  on  the  pier.  If  the  attention  of  spectators 
should  be  especially  called  to  him  they  may  see  him 
wave  his  hand  to  somebody  on  or  perhaps  off  the 
bow  of  the  ship — wave  It  as  an  order  to  cast  off 
the  lines  holding  the  steamer  to  the  pier.  Another 
wave  or  two  releases  her  at  other  points.  Then  as 
the  water  is  churned  up  beneath  her  stern  by  the 
revolving  propeller  she  backs  slowly  into  the  river, 
where  a  lot  of  fussy  tugs  gather  around  her  and  push 
on  one  bow  and  on  the  opposite  quarter  until  she 
is  at  last  headed  down  toward  the  sea.  Then  she 
manages  to  get  away  on  her  course. 

When  the  wind  and  the  tide  served  as  the  Garrick 
lay  stern  to  at  her  East  River  pier,  Captain  Palmer, 
big,  burly  and  commanding,  came  to  the  starboard 
side  of  the  quarterdeck  and  with  trumpet  in  hand 
gave  orders,  distinctly  heard  but  never  boisterous, 
under  which  the  great  topsails  were  spread  by  sheets 
and  halyards  flat  aback  to  the  breeze,  the  jibs  were 
hoisted  and  the  spanker  loosened.  The  straining 
lines  holding  the  ship  to  the  pier  were  now  cast  off, 
and  under  the  impulse  of  the  breeze  alone  she  backed 
into  the  river  where  her  stern  was  turned  up  to  the 
north  by  the  handling  of  the  jibs  and  the  bracing  of 
the  yards  on  which  sails  had  been  set — she  was 
backed  until  she  was  well  clear  of  the  pier — and  the 
bow  was  pointed  toward  the  sea.  Then  the  spanker 
was  hauled  aft,  all  the  lighter  sails  and  the  courses 
were  swiftly  spread,  the  staysails  were  run  up  be- 


i6o         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

tween  the  masts  and  with  a  throng  of  enthusiastic 
spectators  shouting  themselves  hoarse  in  vain  efforts 
to  express  their  appreciation  of  the  master's  skill,  the 
ship  fled  rippling  down  the  bay. 

More  difficult  still  was  bringing  the  ship  to  her 
pier  at  the  end  of  the  voyage.  Tugs  were  to  be  had 
— great,  squat,  side-wheelers,  as  homely  as  sin — but 
when  the  wind  and  tide  favored  Captain  Palmer 
would  have  none  of  them.  Coming  up  East  River 
on  the  port  tack  with  all  plain  sail  set  he  stood  well 
over  to  the  Brooklyn  side  until  the  ship's  pier  had 
been  passed  to  the  exact  distance  needed.  Then  he 
turned  the  ship  to  the  starboard  tack,  reached  across 
to  the  pier,  and  while  the  crew  lowered  away  on 
halyards  and  hauled  up  on  all  clewlines  and  bunt- 
lines,  and  yanked  at  the  downhauls  hand  over  hand, 
the  clean  hull  slipped  Into  her  berth  without  so  much 
as  scraping  her  freshly  painted  side  on  a  string- 
piece,  until  her  fasts  were  thrown  over  the  timber- 
heads. 

It  is  pleasing  to  recall,  now,  that  when  an  Ameri- 
can ship  master  brought  his  ship  to  her  pier  under 
sail  the  British  captains  who  happened  to  be  in  port 
always  joined  most  cordially  In  the  applause  which 
greeted  the  exploit.  Moreover,  the  record-breaking 
feats  of  all  the  American  packets,  and  the  new 
packets  as  they  appeared,  were  described  in  the 
British  papers  In  terms  of  highest  praise.  There 
was  nothing  small  about  the  most  energetic  rivals  of 
the  Yankee  sailor  of  the  sail. 


Commodore  of  the  Dramatic  Line        i6i 

It  Is  therefore  proper  to  Inquire  how  It  came  to 
pass  that  Yankee  captains  were  so  far  superior  to 
those  of  all  other  nations.  The  British  themselves 
answered  this  question  for  the  benefit  of  their  own 
seamen.  A  committee  of  Parliament,  which  had 
been  appointed  ostensibly  to  "Inquire  Into  the  cause 
of  shipwrecks  In  the  British  merchant  service,"  made 
a  report  which  was  printed  In  the  London  Courier 
on  August  1 8  and  20,  1836,  and  reprinted,  In  part. 
In  the  Army  and  Navy  Chronicle  (Washington)  on 
October  6.  The  following  paragraph  appeared  In 
that  report : 

"American  Shipping. — That  the  committee  can- 
not conclude  Its  labors  without  calling  attention  to 
the  fact  that  ships  of  the  United  States  of  America, 
frequenting  the  ports  of  England,  are  stated  by  sev- 
eral witnesses  to  be  superior  to  those  of  a  similar 
class  amongst  the  ships  of  Great  Britain,  the  com- 
manders and  officers  being  generally  considered  to 
be  more  competent  as  seamen  and  navigators,  and 
more  uniformly  persons  of  education,  than  the  com- 
manders and  officers  of  British  ships  of  a  similar 
size  and  class  trading  from  England  to  America; 
while  the  seamen  of  the  United  States  are  considered 
to  be  more  carefully  selected  and  to  be  more  efficient; 
that  American  ships  sailing  from  Liverpool  to  New 
York  have  a  preference  over  English  vessels  sailing 
to  the  same  port,  both  as  to  freight  and  rate  of  In- 
surance ;  and,  higher  wages  being  given,  their  whole 
equipment  is  maintained  In  a  higher  state  of  perfec- 


1 62         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

tion,  so  that  fewer  losses  occur.  .  .  .  The  tempta- 
tions offered  by  superior  wages  of  American  vessels 
cause  a  large  number  of  British  seamen  every  year 
to  leave  the  service  of  their  own  country,  and  to 
embark  in  that  of  the  United  States,  and  these,  com- 
prising chiefly  the  most  skilful  and  competent  of  our 
mariners,  produce  the  double  effect  of  improving 
the  efficiency  of  American  crews  and  in  the  same 
ratio  diminishing  the  efficiency  of  the  British  mer- 
chant service." 

Captain  Palmer  was  conspicuous  among  those 
American  ship  masters  who  were,  as  the  committee 
of  Parliament  declared,  "more  uniformly  persons  of 
education"  than  British  ship  masters,  but  it  is  to  be 
remembered  that  after  he  was  fourteen  years  old  his 
schooling  was  secured  on  board  American  vessels. 
He  had  by  conscious  endeavor  educated  himself 
throughout  his  career  as  foremasthand,  second  mate, 
mate  and  master. 

For  the  American  people  who  are  now  (1921) 
trying  to  maintain  an  overbuilt  merchant  marine,  the 
quotation  above  from  the  report  of  the  Committee 
of  Parliament  contains  some  of  the  most  important 
statements  of  fact  ever  printed.  Summed  up  in  a 
single  sentence  the  committee's  report  said  that 
American  ships  had  a  "preference  over  English 
vessels"  solely  because  vessel  and  crew  taken  to- 
gether as  a  unit  were  more  "efficient."  The  whole 
story  of  American  leadership  at  sea  Is  told  by  that 


Commodore  of  the  Dramatic  Line        163 

single  word  efficient.  The  cost  of  our  packets  at 
an  average  $90  a  ton  was  higher  than  the  cost  of 
British  ships  of  a  similar  size,  and  the  crews  received 
higher  wages,  but  this  combination  of  cost  produced 
a  more  efficient  carrier  and  it  was  therefore  more 
profitable. 

In  the  earlier  years  of  the  century  while  seals  were 
to  be  had,  our  ships  dominated  the  fishery.  After 
the  seals  failed,  our  ships  rapidly  secured  the  lead 
in  the  whale  fishery,  a  lead  that  was  greater  than 
any  other  whaleships  had  had  even  when  the  War 
of  18 12  was  raging.  Between  18 16  and  the  advent 
of  the  steamship,  our  Liverpool  packets  were  with- 
out foreign  competition.  But  until  the  year  1844 
the  long-haul  trade  between  Canton  and  civilized 
ports  was  chiefly  in  the  hands  of  British  shipping. 
There  were  American  ships  in  the  trade  that  made 
money,  but  they  did  not  encroach,  or  say  dominate, 
as  they  did  in  all  other  trades  of  importance.  How 
the  Yankees  gained  supremacy  in  the  China  trade 
after  1844  is  one  of  the  most  interesting  chapters 
in  the  history  of  the  sea  and  the  story  shall  be  told 
because  of  Captain  Palmer's  part  in  the  work. 


CHAPTER  XV 

RECORD  PASSAGE  FROM  LIVERPOOL  TO  NEW  YORK 

BEFORE  describing  the  work  and  Influence  of 
Captain  Palmer  upon  the  American  clipper 
fleet  It  Is  necessary  to  tell  why  he  left  the 
packet  service.  As  previously  noted,  the  packet 
service  demanded  that  every  ship  be  driven  to  the 
last  gasp  on  every  passage  In  either  direction. 
There  was  no  weather  bureau  to  give  advance  notice 
that  a  storm  was  Impending,  and  If  such  a  notice  had 
been  printed  the  packet  captain  would  have  rejoiced 
to  take  advantage  of  the  power  of  the  gale. 

Even  when  the  first  northeast  breath  of  a  West 
India  hurricane  came,  moisture  laden,  across  New 
York  Bay  at  the  hour  of  his  departure.  Captain 
Palmer  hauled  his  ship  Into  the  stream,  scudded 
down  the  bay  to  Sandy  Hook,  discharged  his  pilot, 
and  then,  with  all  plain  sail  set  at  least  up  to  top- 
gallant sails,  he  stood  out  to  sea.  The  long  waves 
— "the  dogs  coming  before  their  master" — with  the 
growing  weight  of  the  wind  compelled  him,  in  time, 
to  decrease  the  spread,  but  he  did  It  grudgingly,  one 
sail  at  a  time,  and  only  when  the  ship  was  reeling 
her  lee  scuppers  into  the  solid  water,  and  the  lee 
yard  arms  were  down  to  the  waves,  was  a  reef  turned 
into  the  topsails. 

164 


Record  Passage  from  Liverpool  to  New  York     165 

While  the  ship  plunged  and  plowed  her  way 
to  eastward  the  captain  remained  on  deck,  no  mat- 
ter how  competent  the  junior  officers,  for  he  alone 
was  responsible  for  the  speed  of  the  passage  and  the 
safety  of  the  ship.  All  night  he  paced  the  quarter- 
deck. When  day  came  struggling  through  the  murk 
the  steward  brought  a  big  armchair  and  secured  it 
under  the  weather  rail.  In  that  the  captain  sat  down 
for  a  rest,  now  and  then,  but  never  for  a  moment 
did  he  fail  to  give  heed  to  the  wet  sails  and  the  strain- 
ing gear  aloft.  His  meals  were  brought  to  him  as 
he  sat  in  the  chair,  with  now  and  then  a  cup  of  coffee 
between  times,  but  he  was  on  his  feet,  pacing  to  and 
fro  or  walking  forward  for  a  look  at  the  head  sails 
during  many  more  hours  of  the  day  than  he  was 
seated  in  the  chair.  The  next  night  found  him  as 
vigilant  as  ever.  For  him  there  was  no  watch  below. 
Day  on  day  and  night  on  night  he  turned  his  eyes 
from  the  reeling  spars  to  the  raging  seas  and  back 
again  to  the  spars.  He  was  wet  by  the  clouds  of 
spray  that  came  over  the  weather  rail  and  by  the 
solid  blue  water  into  which  the  lee  rail  sagged  at 
every  roll;  he  was  chilled  by  the  wind  as  well  as  the 
water;  but  he  remained  on  deck,  ready  on  the  Instant 
for  every  emergency,  while  the  storm  lasted.  No 
firmer  hand  than  his  ever  drew  the  reins  over  Nep- 
tune's white-manned  horses. 

For  a  summer  storm,  no  matter  how  long  it  en- 
dured, such  an  experience  rarely  if  ever  provoked 
a  comment  on  his  arrival  in  port,  unless,  indeed,  he 


1 66         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

happened  to  be  racing  with  a  steamship,  when  he 
would  ask  by  how  many  hours  he  had  beaten  her. 
And  even  when  he  had  faced  the  snow-laden  and 
sleet-laden  blasts  of  winter  in  the  "Roaring  Forties" 
for  a  fortnight  at  a  stretch,  with  no  more  sleep  than 
could  be  had  in  an  occasional  nap  in  his  armchair, 
he  spoke  of  the  experience,  if  at  all,  only  as  a  matter 
for  quiet  satisfaction  rather  than  complaint. 

Nevertheless  a  time  came,  when  his  body  could  no 
longer  endure  the  strain  even  though  it  were  sus- 
tained by  an  iron  will,  and  his  health  failed  so  far 
that  he  had  to  leave  the  service.  Of  course  he  did 
not  sever  his  connection  abruptly.  He  went  to  New 
Orleans  in  1839  for  a  rest.  He  had  a  brother  who 
had  been  established  in  business  there  for  years,  and 
the  manner  of  life  in  the  Crescent  City  delighted 
him  and  brought  renewed  strength.  So  he  came 
back  to  command  the  Siddons,  and  in  a  passage  be- 
ginning at  Liverpool  in  October,  1840,  he  drove  his 
packet  across  the  Atlantic  and  to  her  pier  in  New 
York  in  fifteen  days.  This  was  the  shortest  west- 
ward passage  between  Liverpool  and  New  York  of 
which  there  is  any  record.  The  next  in  length  of 
time  was  made  by  the  Yorkshire,  Captain  Bailey,  in 
1846.  She  crossed  in  sixteen  days.  The  passage  of 
the  Siddons  has  been  overlooked  by  modern  writers 
because  the  captain  avoided  instead  of  seeking  news- 
paper notoriety.  In  a  letter  to  his  family  in  Ston- 
ington,  dated  October  25,  he  gives  the  length  of  the 
passage,  but  adds  no  details.  The  important  news, 
in  his  view,  which  he  had  to  convey  was  the  effect  of 


Record  Passage  from  Liverpool  to  New  York     167 

the  strain  he  had  suffered  upon  his  health.  He  had 
finally  broken  down  and  was  to  sail  immediately  for 
Havana  in  the  hope  that  the  change  of  climate  would 
prove  beneficial — as  it  did.  But  the  unequaled  west- 
ward passage  of  the  Siddons  was  his  last  as  a  master 
in  the  packet  service. 

Among  the  few  remaining  notes  on  the  life  of  the 
captain  in  the  interval  after  he  left  the  packets  and 
before  he  began  his  career  with  the  clippers  is  one 
that  says  he  made  a  voyage  to  Rio  Janeiro  for  a 
cargo  of  coffee,  in  the  ship  Hibernia.  He  was  back 
in  New  York  on  May  20,  1841.  On  July  4  he  went 
fishing  off  Block  Island  and  caught  eighty  mackerel. 
On  January  12,  1842,  he  sailed  from  Norfolk,  Va., 
in  the  U.  S.  Sloop  of  War  Marion,  Captain  Goulds- 
borough,  bound  for  Rio  Janeiro,  where  he  was  to 
take  command  of  a  vessel  loaded  with  coffee.  His 
next  command  was  the  ship  Paul  Jones,  belonging 
to  Robt.  B.  Forbes,  of  Boston,  and  Russell  &  Co., 
of  Hong  Kong.  She  was  a  new  ship,  bound  to  Can- 
ton for  a  load  of  China  goods.  She  sailed  from 
Boston  on  January  15,  1843,  and  made  the  passage 
to  Hong  Kong  in  1 1 1  days,  a  short  time  for  that 
day.  The  voyage  as  a  whole  was  uneventful  in  all 
respects  but  one.  While  on  the  way  home  he  car- 
ried a  passenger  with  whom  he  frequently  discussed 
the  conditions  then  prevailing  in  the  China  trade, 
with  the  result  that  he  determined,  after  arriving  in 
New  York,  to  enter  the  China  service  as  part  owner 
and  master  of  a  ship,  and  this  ship  became  the  first 
of  the  great  fleet  of  American  clippers. 


CHAPTER  XVI 

THE    FIRST   YANKEE    CLIPPER 

THE  Story  of  the  American  clippers  is  mani- 
festly of  growing  rather  than  of  waning 
interest  to  American  readers,  for  it  has  ap- 
peared in  our  magazines  bristling  with  the  records 
of  day-runs  and  of  passages  from  port  to  port  at 
intervals  ever  since  the  last  of  the  mighty  fleet  was 
deprived  of  her  wings  and  set  at  work  as  an  along- 
shore tow-barge.  The  newspaper  editor  who  dis- 
cusses any  feature  of  our  modern  oversea  commerce 
usually  adorns  and  emphasizes  his  argument  by  a 
reference  to  the  days  "when  our  ships  dominated 
the  Seven  Seas" ;  and  in  doing  so  he  assumes  that 
every  reader  already  knows  the  facts  well  enough 
to  appreciate  the  force  of  what  he  says.  Perhaps  it 
is  safe  to  say  that  certain  features  of  the  story  of 
the  clippers  are  as  well  known  to  ordinary  readers 
as  any  chapter  in  American  history. 

Nevertheless  the  records  at  Stonington,  though 
few  in  number,  add  some  facts  of  interest  to  those 
already  printed  in  connection  with  the  clipper  era. 
In  order  to  make  the  story  clear  it  seems  advisable 
to  explain  exactly  what  is  meant  herein  when  the 
term  clipper  ship  is  used  and  to  define  the  period 

i68 


The  First  Yankee  Clipper  169 

called  the  clipper  ship  era.  The  word  clipper  was 
first  applied  to  the  swift  privateers  built  at  Balti- 
more during  the  War  of  18 12.  It  was  derived,  of 
course,  from  the  verb  clip  which  means  to  cut  or 
shorten.  The  Baltimore  clippers  certainly  did 
shorten  the  time  theretofore  required  to  sail  a  sea 
mile. 

As  used  here  the  word  clipper  is  applied  to  a 
class  of  carriers  which  were  built  at  first  especially 
for  the  China  trade.  After  the  discovery  of  gold 
in  California  the  fleet  was  rapidly  enlarged  for  use 
in  the  trade  to  San  Francisco.  All  of  these  ships 
were  designed  for  high  speed  instead  of  great  cargo 
capacity.  They  were  not  yachts,  built  solely  to  break 
speed  records;  they  were  cargo  carriers  built  for 
profits.  Speed  was  considered  more  desirable  than 
cargo  capacity  solely  because  of  the  well-founded  be- 
lief that  speed  would  bring  more  profits  than  a  slow 
ship  of  great  capacity;  and  never  was  the  theory 
that  profit  and  progress  go  hand  in  hand  illustrated 
more  clearly  than  in  the  evolution  of  these  ships. 

Thus,  the  first  ship  built  for  speed  instead  of 
capacity  was  the  Ann  McKim,  of  493  tons,  owned  by 
Isaac  McKim,  of  Baltimore,  and  launched  in  1832. 
She  had  live  oak  frames,  mahogany  deck  finishings, 
with  no  end  of  brass  work,  and  was  copper  fastened. 
The  cost  was  excessive  and  because  she  had  a  sharp 
model  her  cargo  capacity  was  relatively  small.  She 
therefore  made  less  profits  than  the  other  ships  in 
the  trade  and  was  regarded  by  other  ship  merchants 


1 70         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

as  an  example  to  be  avoided  rather  than  imitated. 
She  therefore  had  no  Influence  In  bringing  on  what 
Is  called  the  clipper  era. 

The  plans  for  building  the  China  clippers  (two 
in  number)  which  initiated  the  clipper  era  were 
drawn  in  1843.  One  of  the  ships  was  launched  in 
May,  1844;  the  other  In  January,  1845.  -Both  were 
larger  than  any  ship  previously  in  the  China  trade, 
and  both  were  of  refined  model.  In  spite  of  sharp 
models,  however,  both  proved  to  be  immensely 
profitable.  Their  owners  therefore  at  once  built 
others  to  similar  models.  These  proved  to  be  still 
more  profitable  and  the  profits  being  In  considerable 
measure  due  to  speed,  other  merchants  were  led  to 
consider  the  advisability  of  building  similar  ships. 
The  urgent  demand  for  tonnage  which  followed  the 
discovery  of  gold  In  California  and  the  still  more 
urgent  demand  that  the  ships  in  this  trade  should 
be  swift — the  fact  that  speed  added  greatly  to  the 
profits  of  tonnage  In  this  trade — was  the  final  Im- 
pulse which  brought  the  clipper  ship  evolution  to  its 
zenith  of  splendor  in  size  and  speed.  Indeed, 
builders  and  merchants  lost  all  sense  of  proportion 
and  built  beyond  the  needs  of  the  period  so  that 
profits  fell  off;  whereupon  there  was  a  return  to 
what  may  be  called  the  capacity  model.  But  mar- 
velous speed  records  were  made,  and  European 
merchants  and  builders  were  compelled  to  acknowl- 
edge the  supremacy  of  American  ships  In  the  long- 


The  First  Yankee  Clipper  171 

haul  trades  as  they  had  previously  acknowledged 
that  supremacy  on  the  North  Atlantic. 

In  the  meantime,  certain  schooners  and  brigs 
which  had  been  engaged  in  the  coasting  trade  of 
China  had  been  called  clippers  because  they  had  been 
modeled  for  speed  rather  than  capacity.  Speed  was 
absolutely  necessary  to  profits  in  that  trade,  for  the 
vessels  had  -to  beat  against  powerful  currents  and 
dodge  pirates.  These  vessels  are  of  interest  here 
not  because  they  were  a  part  of  the  great  fleet  of 
American  clippers,  properly  so  called,  but  because 
the  profits  which  they  made  led  Captain  Palmer  to 
design  and  build  the  first  of  the  China  clippers  that 
was  put  in  commission. 

Let  it  be  said  once  more  than  the  clippers  com- 
posed a  distinct  fleet.  The  packets  were  passenger 
carriers,  sailing  on  schedules.  The  clippers  were 
cargo  carriers  only  (a  few  passengers  were  carried 
on  some  of  them)  and  they  sailed  when  loaded. 
The  packets  in  their  record-breaking  passages  prob- 
ably attained  speeds  up  to  fifteen  knots  an  hour, 
though  the  records  do  not  give  the  exact  facts.  Sev- 
eral of  the  clippers  exceeded  eighteen  knots  an  hour 
and  the  log  book  of  the  Lightning,  quoted  by  Capt. 
Clark  in  his  "Clipper  Ship  Era,"  says  she  dragged 
out  twenty-one  knots  in  one  heave  of  the  log. 

If  these  statements  need  be  argued  no  further 
now,  we  will  consider  how  it  happened  that  a  de- 
mand arose  for  improved  ships  in  the  China  trade, 


172         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

where  the  first  clippers  appeared.  The  American 
trade  with  China  was  opened  when  the  ship  Empress 
of  China,  Captain  John  Green,  sailed  from  New 
York  (February  22,  1784)  for  Canton  with  a  cargo, 
the  principal  item  of  which  was  ginseng  roots — 
14,666  pounds,  worth  in  Canton  a  dollar  a  pound  on 
the  average.  The  passage  out  was  covered  in  174 
days.  An  old  account  of  her  arrival  says  "it  is 
pleasing  to  notice  the  courtesy  with  which  the  Amer- 
icans were  welcomed"  at  Whampoa,  Canton's  sea- 
port. There  were  thirty-four  ships  (seventeen 
British)  at  anchor  there  and  every  one  of  them 
fired  a  salute  when  the  Yankee,  with  her  flag  flying, 
came  to  join  them. 

After  exchanging  her  ginseng  for  tea  and  other 
goods  the  Empress  sailed  home  in  135  days.  The 
account  quoted  says  "the  profits  of  the  voyage  were 
$30,000,  upwards  of  25%  on  the  capital  employed." 
The  merchants  of  that  day  thought  25%  a  small  re- 
turn on  a  voyage  requiring  a  year's  time,  but  they 
persisted  in  the  trade  because  they  observed  that 
with  added  experience  and  a  larger  capital  they  could 
make  more.  By  1792  they  considered  the  trade 
well  established  because  the  American  import  of 
tea,  during  that  year,  amounted  to  2,614,008 
pounds,  a  part  of  which  was  received  in  exchange 
for  seal  skins  taken  in  the  Cape  Horn  region. 

Thereafter,  by  irregular  advances,  the  amount  of 
tea  imported  increased  to  20,000,000  pounds,  worth 
$5,427,010,  in   1841.     In  that  year  35  American 


The  First  Yankee  Clipper  173 

ships  of  the  average  size  of  390  tons  were  employed 
in  our  trade  to  China. 

The  distance  from  New  York  to  Canton,  as  the 
ships  sailed,  was  around  14,000  miles  and  the  time 
required  for  a  voyage  (out  and  back)  was  about 
one  year.  It  was  obvious  that  if  the  length  of  time 
consumed  could  be  shortened  the  expense  would  be 
decreased.  The  fact  that  tea  deteriorated  during 
a  long  passage  was  another  inducement  to  shorten 
the  time  required.  The  new  crop  tea,  called  Young 
Hyson,  consisting  of  the  partially  developed  leaves, 
was  especially  subject  to  injury.  A  simple  calcula- 
tion showed  every  tea  merchant  that  if  a  cargo  of 
this  new  crop  could  be  landed  in  New  York  say  a 
month  ahead  of  the  coming  of  the  fleet,  the  owners 
would  make  a  profit  of  from  100%  to  150%  on 
all  the  capital  used  in  the  venture.  And  yet  down 
to  the  year  1843  but  one  tea  merchant  of  the  United 
States  had  built  a  ship  that  was  especially  designed 
to  make  such  swift  passages  as  that. 

In  view  of  the  competition  between  American 
tea  merchants,  and  of  what  had  been  done  in  the 
way  of  increasing  speed  among  the  Liverpool 
packets,  the  continued  use  of  relatively  slow  little 
400-ton  droghers  in  the  tea  trade  seems  at  first 
thought  discreditable  to  the  merchants.  But  an  ex- 
planation of  this  conservatism  is  found  in  the  extent 
of  the  trade.  Large  ships  were  not  needed.  The 
20,000,000  pounds  imported  in  1841,  reduced  to 
deadweight  tons,  was  but  little  more  than  the  weight 


174         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

carried  by  ten  such  ships  as  the  packet  Roscius;  and 
yet  this  total  of  10,000  tons  was,  of  course,  dis- 
tributed among  all  the  35  ships  in  the  trade.  To 
build  a  ship  large  enough  to  give  a  material  increase 
of  speed  in  the  long  passage  was  not  attempted  be- 
cause even  the  larger  ships  in  use  came  home  with 
less  cargo  than  they  might  have  carried. 

Beginning  in  1839,  however,  events  occurred  in 
China  which  gave  an  entirely  new  aspect  to  the 
trade.  In  that  year  the  Chinese  Government  began 
trying  to  exclude  opium  from  the  realm  and  thus 
brought  on  what  was  called  the  Opium  War  with 
England.  During  1842  the  Chinese  were  beaten 
and  they  made  peace  (August  29)  by  ceding  Hong 
Kong  in  perpetuity  to  the  British  and  by  paying  an 
indemnity  of  $21,000,000.  They  also  opened  to 
foreign  trade  four  ports  in  addition  to  Canton. 

In  the  American  view  the  most  important  result 
of  the  war  was  the  opening  of  the  additional  ports 
to  foreign  trade.  It  was  like  "the  discovery  of  a 
new  continent,  ready  peopled  with  a  rich,  industri- 
ous" race;  it  was  "one  of  the  greatest  commercial 
revolutions  that  ever  took  place."  So  said  Hunt's 
Merchants^  Magazine.  "Moreover,"  said  Hunt, 
"the  march  of  events  will  ultimately  give  the  United 
States  the  mastery"  in  the  trade. 

It  was  on  January  4,  1843,  that  Captain  Palmer 
sailed  for  Canton  in  command  of  the  Paul  Jones. 
Some  of  the  events  of  the  Opium  War  had  been 


The  First  Yankee  Clipper  175 

described,  of  course,  in  the  American  newspapers, 
and  the  American  people — more  especially  those  en- 
gaged in  the  China  trade — were  greatly  interested 
in  the  results  expected  to  follow.  It  was  therefore 
natural  that  Captain  Palmer  should  make  a  careful 
study  of  the  commercial  conditions  prevailing  in 
Asia  while  he  was  at  Canton. 

He  perceived  first  of  all  that  American  trade 
with  China  would  be  increased  by  the  opening  of 
the  new  ports  quite  as  rapidly  as  that  of  the  British, 
if  not  more  so;  for  while  the  Chinese  did  not  refuse 
to  trade  with  the  British  they  favored  the  Ameri- 
cans whenever  possible. 

The  opium  trade  received  the  captain's  especial 
attention,  partly  because  it  had  led  to  the  war,  but 
chiefly,  perhaps,  because  a  swift  little  American 
brig  named  the  Antelope,  belonging  to  the  owners 
of  the  Paul  Jones,  was  engaged  In  it.  The  opium 
was  a  product  of  India  and  the  principal  port  of 
shipment  was  Bombay.  The  Antelope  was  plying 
between  Bombay  and  Canton,  making  large  profits. 
Captain  Palmer  perceived  that  the  opening  of  four 
more  China  ports  would  give  opportunity  for  at 
least  one  more  swift  Yankee  ship  in  the  opium  trade. 
For  the  trade  would  inevitably  increase  and  it  was 
the  speed  of  the  Antelope  that  made  the  merchants 
favor  her.  Having  designed  four  splendid  packets 
in  the  Dramatic  Line,  Captain  Palmer  was  confident 
that  he  could  build  a  ship  for  the  trade  between 


176         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

Bombay  and,  say,  Shanghai,  the  principal  of  the  new 
ports,  that  could  hold  a  lead  over  all  others  on  the 
coast  of  Asia. 

Now,  It  happened  that  when  Captain  Palmer  had 
loaded  the  Paul  Jones  for  New  York,  a  man  named 
William  H.  Low,  with  his  wife,  engaged  passage. 
Mr.  Low  was  a  brother  of  Ablel  Abbott  Low,  of  the 
New  York  tea  firm  of  A.  A.  Low  &  Brother  (there 
being  only  two  of  the  brothers  then  In  the  business). 
He  was  one  of  the  firm  of  Russell  &  Co.,  Hong 
Kong,  and  on  the  way  home  he  and  Captain  Palmer 
discussed  the  foreign  trade  of  China  from  every 
point  of  view.  The  kind  of  a  ship  needed — the  size, 
model,  rig  and  so  on — was  a  matter  of  special  Inter- 
est to  them.  As  a  result  of  these  discussions  the  two 
eventually  agreed  that  larger  ships  than  those  al- 
ready engaged  should  prove  more  profitable,  and 
they  then  concluded  that,  as  an  experiment  In  the 
growing  trade,  a  vessel  designed  for  the  opium 
trade  between  Bombay  and  some  port  In  China 
would  have  more  chances  for  profit  than  any  other. 

In  a  letter  which  Captain  Palmer  wrote  to  A.  A. 
Low  on  August  8,  1875,  he  referred  to  this  matter 
as  follows: 

*'At  the  period  of  my  first  visit  to  China  the  opium 
trade  was  in  full  tide  of  prosperity.  The  Antelope 
and  other  clippers  were  running  between  Bombay 
and  other  Indian  ports,  making  large  freights  and 
doing  a  fine  business;  and  It  did  not  appear  that  any 
material  change  would  take  place  for  years  to  come. 


The  First  Yankee  Clipper  177 

Your  brother  and  myself  came  to  the  conclusion 
there  would  be  a  good  opening  for  a  fast  clipper 
in  the  opium  business  between  China  and  Bombay, 
and  we  decided  to  carry  out  the  enterprise  on  our 
arrival  home.  I  was  to  take  one-quarter  interest 
and  he  was  to  take  care  of  the  other  three-quarters. 
He  stated  that  he  had  no  doubt  but  you  would  be 
interested  in  the  enterprise  on  arrival  home  in 
October,  1843. 

"I  had  not  the  pleasure  of  knowing  you  at  this 
time.  I  was  taken  by  your  brother  William  to  your 
place  of  business  in  Fletcher  Street,  and  formally 
introduced.  When  the  project  was  made  known  you 
readily  approved  of  it,  and  authorized  me  to  con- 
tract for  a  suitable  vessel. 

"I  went  immediately  to  Messrs.  Brown  &  Bell, 
the  most  eminent  shipbuilders  in  the  city  and  con- 
tracted with  them  to  build  a  brig  120  feet  long,  13 
feet  deep  and  28  feet  beam,  making  a  vessel  of  450 
tons,  costing  for  hull  and  spars  $16,500.  Before 
the  model  was  finished  and  the  vessel  begun  it 
occurred  to  me  that  a  vessel  of  the  shape  and  dimen- 
sions as  above  would  be  unsuitable  for  any  other 
purpose  than  the  opium  trade.  Consequently  I  sug- 
gested to  enlarge  the  dimensions  to  a  vessel  132  feet 
long,  17  feet  depth  of  hold  and  32  feet  beam,  which 
was  approved  of,  and  [I]  was  authorized  to  ascer- 
tain what  the  additional  cost  would  be.  I  immedi- 
ately called  on  Mr.  Brown  and  asked  what  the 
additional  cost  would  be.    He  said : 


178         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

"  'That  is  just  such  a  vessel  as  I  want  to  build, 
and  I  will  do  it  for  $3,000  additional.'  " 

The  increase  of  cost  was  approved  by  Mr.  Low 
and  the  ship  was  then  "built  and  fitted  out  under 
my  supervision,  and  all  contracts  were  made  by  me 
from  keel  to  truck,"  to  quote  still  more  from  the 
letter. 

Captain  Charles  P.  Low  (a  brother  of  A.  A. 
Low),  who  later  commanded  three  different  clippers 
designed  by  Captain  Palmer,  writes  in  his  auto- 
biography, "Some  Recollections,"  as  follows  re- 
garding this  ship : 

"Soon  after  I  left  home  for  London  my  brother 
William  came  home  from  China  with  Captain  Nat 
Palmer,  in  the  ship  Paul  Jones.  During  the  voyage 
Captain  Palmer  had  made  a  model  of  a  clipper  ship 
and  my  brother  took  him  to  my  brother  Abbot  and 
persuaded  him  to  have  a  ship  built  after  the  model. 
It  was  to  be  built  like  a  man-of-war,  with  solid  bul- 
warks and  pierced  for  sixteen  guns — eight  on  a  side. 
She  was  to  be  very  fast.  This  vessel,  when  I  re- 
turned from  London,  was  being  built  at  Brown  & 
Bell's  yards." 

The  exact  day  in  October,  1843,  when  Captain 
Palmer  called  on  the  Lows  in  connection  with  this 
ship  is  not  recorded,  but  the  contract  for  the  ship 
was  signed  about  November  i.  The  captain  says 
distinctly  that  she  was  the  "first  clipper  ship  built 


The  First  Yankee  Clipper  179 

for  commercial  purposes'*  and  that  she  sailed  for 
China,  "admired  by  all,"  in  June,  1844. 

That  the  Houqua,  as  this  ship  was  called,  was  one 
of  the  clipper  fleet,  as  claimed  by  Captain  Palmer  in 
the  above  letter,  is  distinctly  asserted  by  several 
periodicals  published  while  she  was  in  commission. 
For  example,  in  a  description  of  the  clipper  ship 
Staghoundf  which  was  published  in  the  Monthly 
Nautical  Magazine,  dated  August,  1855,  by  John 
Willis  Griffiths,  the  editor,  are  the  following  state- 
ments : 

"The  construction  of  this  ship  may  be  said  to 
mark  the  introduction  of  the  late  clipper  era  to 
Boston.  The  building  of  fast  vessels  for  foreign 
trade  had  for  several  years  been  adopted  in  New 
York,  having  been  first  undertaken  by  William  H. 
Aspinwall  for  whom  Smith  &  Dimon  constructed 
the  clipper  ship  Rainbow,  in  1843,  which  was  fol- 
lowed by  the  Houqua  and  Samuel  Russell,  by 
Brown  &  Bell ;  and  the  famous  Sea  Witch,  also  built 
by  Smith  &  Dimon.  .  .  .  Such  was  the  condition  of 
enterprise  in  New  York  for  several  years  before 
Boston  awoke  to  distinguish  herself  in  clipper  build- 
ing, and  give  to  the  world  many  of  the  fastest  fleets 
and  largest  ships  in  commercial  service." 

When  Griffiths  spoke  of  "building  of  fast  vessels 
for  foreign  trade"  he  meant  to  say  for  the  long- 
haul  trade,  beginning  with  that  to  China,  in  order 
to  distinguish  these  ships  from  those  employed  in 


i8o         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

the  packet  trade  of  the  North  Atlantic.     He  then 
continued : 

"The  bold  mind  of  Donald  McKay  grew  restless 
under  the  idea  that  a  sister  city  was  monopolizing 
the  construction  of  fast  vessels,  and  for  many  years 
he  urged  Boston  merchants  to  enter  the  lists  with 
Messrs.  Aspinwall,  Captain  N.  B.  Palmer  and 
others,  and  dispute  for  the  palm  of  speed." 

Editor  Griffiths  was  the  designer  of  the  two  ships. 
Rainbow  and  Sea  Witch,  built  by  Smith  &  Dimon, 
of  which  he  made  mention,  and  his  statement  that 
the  Houqua  was  a  clipper  is  therefore  conclusive 
evidence  that  she  was  so. 

Another  quotation  which  seems  worth  giving  here 
is  found  in  an  essay,  entitled  "Ships,  Models,  Ship- 
building, &c.,"  which  was  printed  in  Hunt's  Mer- 
chants* Magazine,  in  February,  1848.  The  un- 
named writer  considers  at  length  certain  innovations 
in  models  which  had  appeared  in  recent  years  and 
the  arguments  for  and  against  them.  These  innova- 
tions had  been  introduced  by  Editor  Griffiths,  who 
supported  them  with  mathematical  calculations 
which  the  ordinary  shipbuilders  could  not  make. 
The  writer  of  the  essay  was  unconvinced  by  the 
scientific  calculations,  and  he  was  still  doubtful  after 
considering  the  speed  records  of  the  two  Griffiths' 
clippers,  Rainbow  and  Sea  Witch.  In  fact,  his  chief 
object  in  writing  the  essay  was  to  prove  that  "ex- 
perience, judgment  and  talent  are  requisite,"  and  in 


The  First  Yankee  Clipper  i8i 

fact  were  more  important,  when  a  fast  ship  was  to  be 
designed,  than  "science  and  mathematics." 

In  the  course  of  his  argument  he  wrote  as  follows : 

"The  Houqua,  Coquette,  Crusader ,  Valparaiso , 
Paul  Jones,  and  other  ships  were  not  built  by  mere 
science  and  mathematics;  and  yet  few  vessels  built 
at  navy  yards  equal  them." 

The  fact  that  the  Houqua  came  to  the  mind  of 
this  writer  first  of  all  shows,  of  course,  that  she 
was  a  noted  ship  in  1848,  and  that  was  at  a  time 
when  new  records  for  speed  were  the  chief  topic 
of  conversation  in  New  York  City. 

No  writer  has  ever  disputed  the  claim  that  the 
Houqua  was  a  noted  clipper,  but  it  has  been  said  by 
modern  writers  that  the  Rainbow  was  the  first  of 
the  famous  fleet,  while  Captain  Palmer  asserted  that 
his  Houqua  was  first.  The  question  at  Issue  is 
therefore  primarily  one  of  dates  only.  Was  the 
Houqua  the  first  ship  to  enter  the  China  trade  or 
was  the  Rainbow? 

In  the  letter  previously  quoted.  Captain  Palmer 
says  that  the  contract  for  the  Houqua  was  signed 
the  first  of  November,  1843,  ^^^  that  she  sailed 
for  Canton  in  June,  1844.  To  support  these  state- 
ments of  fact  there  is  a  list  of  the  ships  built  by 
Brown  &  Bell,  between  1821  and  1847,  inclusive, 
which  was  printed  in  the  Merchants^  Magazine  in 
December,  1848  (p.  643).  This  table  says  that 
the  Houqua,  of  706  tons,  was  launched  in  1844,  and 


1 82         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

was  the  first  of  two  that  were  built  there  during  that 
year.  Searches  have  been  made  in  files  of  the  New 
York  Herald  and  other  New  York  periodicals  and 
in  the  records  of  Lloyds'  "Register  of  Shipping"  for 
the  exact  date  when  the  Houqua  was  launched,  but 
without  avail.  Nor  was  the  exact  date  of  the  launch- 
ing of  the  Rainbow  found.  But  it  is  not  doubted 
that  the  Houqua  went  afloat  some  time  in  May, 
1844.  As  to  the  Rainbow  it  appears  from  various 
accounts  that  her  keel  was  placed  on  the  blocks 
early  in  1843 — certainly  several  months  before  the 
keel  of  the  Houqua  was  stretched.  But  because  of 
disputes  between  William  H.  Aspinwall,  the  owner, 
and  John  Willis  Griffiths,  the  designer,  the  work  of 
building  her  was  delayed  so  long  that  she  was  not 
launched  until  January,  1845.  The  most  interesting 
of  all  the  magazine  histories  of  this  ship  which  have 
been  printed  was  written  by  William  Brown  Meloney 
for  the  Saturday  Evening  Post,  of  Philadelphia.  It 
appeared  on  February  26,  19 16,  and  the  following 
is  quoted  by  permission: 

"So  it  was  not  until  a  cold  and  cheerless  morn- 
ing in  January,  1845,  that  the  Rainbow,  whose  keel 
had  been  laid  nearly  two  years  before,  was  ready 
to  leave  the  ways.  .  .  .  The  Rainbow  sailed  in 
February  for  China." 

Meloney's  statement  is  confirmed  by  Captain 
Clark's  "Clipper  Ship  Era."  It  is  therefore  certain 
that  the  Rainbow  was  launched  seven  months  after 
the  Houqua  had  sailed  for  Canton. 


CHAPTER  XVII 

THE  GRIFFITHS  CLIPPERS 

WHILE  the  records  show  that  the  Rainbow 
sailed  for  China  long  after  the  sailing 
of  the  Houqua,  it  must  be  obvious  to  the 
reader  that  In  any  consideration  of  the  relative  in- 
fluence of  the  two  ships  upon  the  evolution  of  the 
clippers  the  character  of  each  as  a  cargo  carrier  is 
of  more  importance  than  the  date  on  which  each 
was  commissioned. 

Perhaps  it  should  be  said,  first  of  all,  however, 
that  while  Griffiths  and  Captain  Palmer  differed  in 
their  opinions  of  models,  their  personal  relations 
were  friendly.  The  references  to  Captain  Palmer's 
work  which  Griffiths  wrote  in  the  Nautical  Maga- 
zine are  conclusive  evidence  that  their  rivalry,  such 
as  it  was,  was  entirely  devoid  of  personal  ill  will. 
There  was,  indeed,  no  occasion  for  any  such  feeling, 
for  each  was  amply  supported  by  the  ship  owners 
of  the  coast,  and  the  results  obtained  by  each  were 
unmistakably  set  forth  in  the  records  of  the  ships 
and  the  bank  accounts  of  the  owners. 

Because  there  were  two  distinct  lines  of  evolution 
in  the  development  of  the  clippers — rather  say  two 
lines  of  models — the  variety  which  Griffiths  origi- 

183 


184         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

nated  shall  have  first  consideration  here.  The  fact 
is  that  the  circumstances  under  which  this  naval 
architect  became  prominent,  as  well  as  the  records 
of  the  ships  he  designed,  indicate  attention  herein 
to  his  work  as  a  designer  ahead  of  that  of  Captain 
Palmer. 

In  1841-J'ohn  Willis  Griffiths  was  a  draftsman  in 
the  employ  of  Smith  &  Dimon,  then  well  known  ship 
builders.  He  was  a  man  of  education — able,  for  ex- 
ample, to  calculate  the  displacement  of  a  ship,  the 
center  of  gravity  of  her  hull  and  the  center  of  effort 
of  her  sails,  all  from  her  plans. 

His  work  as  a  draftsman  naturally  made  him 
entirely  familiar  with  models  of  the  swift  packets 
of  the  day,  but  while  these  vessels  were  acknowl- 
edged to  be  superior  in  all  respects  to  the  competing 
ships,  Griffiths  became  convinced  that  in  certain 
features  of  the  hulls  they  might  be  greatly  im- 
proved. At  a  meeting  of  the  American  Institute  in 
1 84 1,  he  delivered  a  lecture,  illustrated  with  draw- 
ings, by  which  he  sought  to  prove  that  existing 
models  were  defective.  His  effort  attracted  little 
attention  but  a  year  later  he  came  again,  this  time 
with  a  model,  and  repeated  his  criticisms.  For  this 
lecture  he  was  jeered. 

Griffiths,  however,  had  the  admirable  quality  of 
persistence.  He  sought  and  secured  opportunities 
for  explaining  his  views  in  public,  until  he  obtained 
as  a  respectful  listener  one  of  the  most  enterprising 
merchants  in  New  York,  Mr.  William  H.  Aspin- 


The  Griffiths  Clippers  185 

wall,  the  one  who,  later,  built  the  Panama  Railroad. 
Asplnwall  believed  that  American  trade  with  China 
would  be  greatly  Increased  by  the  results  of  the 
Opium  War,  and  soon  after  hearing,  early  in  1843, 
that  four  ports  had  been  opened  in  China,  he  de- 
termined to  build  for  the  trade  a  ship  of  about  750 
tons — much  larger  than  the  average  of  those  pre- 
viously engaged  in  it.  He  knew,  of  course,  that  a 
swift  ship  was  most  desirable,  and,  having  been 
favorably  impressed  with  the  views  of  young 
Griffiths,  he  was  persuaded  to  sign  a  contract  with 
Smith  &  Dimon  for  a  Griffiths  model.  The  name 
Rainbow  was  given  to  the  ship  to  express  the  hope 
that  her  size  as  well  as  her  speed  would  suit  the 
trade;  for  a  ship  of  her  tons  was  as  yet  experimental. 
Consider,  now,  the  peculiarities  of  model  for 
which  Griffiths  contended.  As  editor  of  the  Nau- 
tical Magazine,  later,  he  wrote  a  number  of  ar- 
ticles in  which  he  set  forth  his  views  of  models. 
Thus,  in  describing  the  Lightning,  built  by  Donald 
McKay,  of  Boston  (McKay  had  been  converted  to 
the  Griffiths  views),  the  following  words  were  used: 

"No  timid  hand  or  hesitating  brain  gave  form 
and  dimensions  to  the  Lightning.  Very  great  sta- 
bility; acute  extremities;  full,  short  midship  body; 
comparatively  small  deadrise,  and  the  longest  end 
forward,  are  points  in  the  excellence  of  this  ship." 

To  secure  "acute  extremities"  the  underwater 
lines   at  each  end  were  made  concave   instead  of 


1 86         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

convex — she  had  hollow  water  lines,  to  use  the 
vernacular.  The  bow  was  comparable  to  an  old- 
fashioned,  hollow-ground  razor.  One  may  imagine 
that  Griffiths  conceived  this  shape  for  bow  and  stern 
while  shaving. 

Donald  McKay,  as  noted  above,  adopted  the 
Griffiths  view.  Another  notable  designer  who  did 
so  was  George  Steers,  who  designed  the  famous 
yacht  America.  The  Rainbow  and  the  Sea  Witch 
were  the  only  ships  of  Griffiths  design  which  became 
famous,  but  Donald  McKay  turned  out  a  great 
fleet  which  made  most  remarkable  passages. 

But  Griffiths  certainly  had  much  trouble  with  the 
first  of  his  ships.  As  already  intimated  the  launch- 
ing was  delayed  nearly  two  years.  The  designers 
of  the  ordinary  models  continued  jeering  the  new 
model  after  Aspinwall  signed  the  contract,  and  the 
newspapers  printed  the  criticisms.  Aspinwall  was 
greatly  affected  by  the  adverse  comment  and  made 
many  efforts  to  induce  Griffiths  to  yield  to  the  clamor, 
but  without  avail.  He  even  sent  to  England  for 
a  sail  plan  for  use  on  the  new  ship — that  too,  al- 
though the  American  packets  had  a  lead  on  the 
Atlantic  which  England  had  never  disputed.  Grif- 
fiths was  obliged  to  accept  this  plan  without  open 
protest,  but  he  nevertheless  used  his  own  when  the 
spars  were  set  and  the  sails  were  made;  and  so  at 
last  the  Rainbow  as  launched  was  his  in  model  from 
truck  down  to  keel. 

Meloney  notes  in  the  Saturday  Evening  Post  that 


The  Griffiths  Clippers  187 

the  Rainbow  cost  Aspinwall  $45,000,  which  the 
reader  may  compare  with  the  $19,500  which  the 
Lows  and  Captain  Palmer  paid  for  the  Houqua; 
for  the  percentage  of  profit  made  on  any  venture 
is  figured,  of  course,  from  the  original  investment. 

But  when  at  last  the  Rainbow  sailed  from  Sandy 
Hook  on  her  way  to  Canton,  the  troubles  of  John 
Willis  GrifHths  as  a  designer  were  at  end;  for  she 
proved  to  be  a  swift  and  profitable  ship.  The  record 
of  her  passages  to  and  from  Canton  in  her  maiden 
voyage  have  been  lost  but  in  her  second  voyage 
she  beat  her  way  against  the  northeast  monsoon 
and  arrived  out  in  92  days  while  her  homeward 
passage  was  made  in  88  days.  She  was  thus  only 
180  days  at  sea  in  this  voyage.  Better  yet  she  made, 
it  is  said,  a  profit  of  100%  on  her  cost. 

In  the  magazine  stories  of  the  clipper  era  It  is 
commonly  asserted  that  the  short  voyages  of  the 
Rainbow  led  to  the  building  of  the  next  Griffiths 
clipper,  the  Sea  Witch,  As  a  matter  of  fact  the 
Rainbow^s  passages  were,  as  said,  wonderful,  but 
they  did  not  break  the  speed  record.  They  did  not 
even  equal  the  record  of  the  Houqua.  A  ship  named 
the  Natchez,  to  be  described  in  another  chapter,  had 
set  a  pace  which  but  one  ship  ever  equaled  on  the 
Canton-New  York  route,  and  it  was  the  work  of  the 
master  of  the  Natchez,  Captain  Robert  H.  Water- 
man (Captain  "Bob"),  that  led  Rowland  &  Aspin- 
wall to  build  another  sharp-hulled  ship  for  the  China 
trade.     Waterman  went  to  the  yard  of  Smith  & 


1 88         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

Dimon  to  superintend  the  construction  of  this 
ship,  but  Griffiths  drew  her  plans.  She  was  launched 
under  the  name  of  Sea  Witch.  She  was  170  feet 
long,  33  feet,  11  Inches  wide  and  19  feet  deep. 
She  measured  890  tons.  She  sailed  for  China  on 
December  23,  1846,  and  poked  the  golden  dragon 
on  her  cutwater  Into  the  harbor  of  Hong  Kong 
104  days  later.  She  then  came  home  from  Canton 
in  81  days,  which  was  not  the  record  run,  though 
really  a  wonder. 

In  her  second  voyage  the  Sea  Witch  made  Hong 
Kong  In  105  days  and  then  on  her  return  broke  all 
records  and  made  a  new  one  which  stands  to  this 
day;  for  she  arrived  in  New  York  at  the  end  of 
77  days  from  Canton.  A  picture  of  this  ship  under 
all  sail  including  royal  studding-sails,  which  was 
used  to  illustrate  Captain  Arthur  Clark's  "Glimpse 
of  the  Clipper-Ship  Days,"  in  Harper's  Magazine^ 
dated  July,  1908  (copyrighted),  was  labeled  "The 
Swiftest   Clipper   of   Her   Day." 

Griffiths  always  declared  that  the  Sea  Witch  had 
more  Influence  upon  the  models  of  the  clippers  built 
thereafter  than  any  other  ship  of  the  period.  Just 
how  far  this  claim  was  justified  cannot  now  be  de- 
termined, but  it  is  certain  that  Griffiths'  chief  Ideas 
were  adopted  by  Donald  McKay,  and  that  McKay 
built  more  clippers  which  became  famous  for  speed 
than  any  other  shipbuilder  of  the  era. 

It  is  therefore  proper  to  give  here,  in  connection 
with  Griffiths'  work,  the  records  made  by  some  of 


The  Griffiths  Clippers  189 

the  McKay  ships  which  were  built  to  the  Griffiths 
model. 

The  Lightningy  mentioned  above  as  having 
dragged  twenty-one  knots  of  logline  from  the  reel 
during  one  turn  of  the  glass,  made  the  record  run 
for  twenty-four  consecutive  hours — 436  miles.  Per- 
haps it  should  be  said  here  that  every  use  of  the 
word  mile  in  this  book  means  a  sea  mile,  6,080.27 
feet  long,  and  not  a  land  mile  which  is  5,280  feet 
long.  McKay's  Sovereign  of  the  Seas,  commanded 
by  Captain  Laughlan  McKay,  a  brother  of  Donald, 
in  a  run  of  82  days  from  Honolulu  to  New  York, 
covered  (in  March,  1853),  3,562  miles  in  eleven 
consecutive  days.  She  crossed  from  New  York  to 
Liverpool  in  13  days  and  19  hours.  Later,  in  a 
passage  from  San  Francisco  to  New  York,  she  cov- 
ered 6,245  miles  in  22  days. 

The  Flying  Cloud,  built  by  McKay  for  Enoch 
Train,  of  Boston  (she  was  commanded  by  Captain 
Josiah  P.  Cressy),  made  the  record  passage  from 
New  York  to  San  Francisco  in  84  days.  The  record 
from  San  Francisco  to  New  York,  76  days,  was 
made  by  three  different  ships — the  Comet,  the 
Northern  Light  and  the  Trade  Wind.  The  record 
voyage  around  the  world,  132  days  between  ports, 
was  made  by  the  James  Baines,  a  McKay  ship,  be- 
ginning December  9,  1854  (Meloney). 

In  connection  with  these  records  consider  two  ex- 
tracts from  log  books  of  clippers  which  are  printed 
in  Clark's  "Clipper  Ship  Era."     On  February  i, 


190         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

1850,  the  Great  Britain,  Captain  Philip  Dumaresq, 
"passed  a  ship  under  double  reefs  with  our  royals 
and  studding  sails  set."  On  June  16,  1854,  the 
James  Baines,  while  sailing  17  knots  an  hour  under 
skysalls,  passed  a  ship  named  the  Lihertas  under 
double  reefed  topsails.  Can  any  one  now  imagine 
the  feelings  of  the  captain  of  the  Lihertas  as  he 
saw  that  glorious  Yankee  clipper  sweep  past  the 
hulk  he  commanded? 

With  the  records  of  the  two  Griffiths  ships,  Rain- 
how  and  Sea  Witch,  before  them,  together  with 
those  of  the  McKay  ships  Lightning,  Sovereign  of 
the  Seas  and  Flying  Cloud,  it  was  entirely  natural 
that  writers  should  have  believed  that  the  Griffiths 
model  was  "the  one  which  the  sea  liked  best." 
Nevertheless,  if  all  the  facts  in  the  clipper  records 
be  considered  in  connection  with  modern,  or  say 
later,  usage  in  the  design  of  swift  models  of  the 
sail,  it  can  be  demonstrated  beyond  dispute  that 
the  chief  feature  of  those  swift  clippers — the  hollow 
water  line — was  a  positive  detriment.  The  ships 
made  short  passages  because  of  certain  other  fea- 
tures of  model  and  construction,  and  because  of  the 
way  they  were  handled.  But  before  going  Into  a 
discussion  of  these  technical  points  of  ship  construc- 
tion the  clippers  designed  by  Captain  Palmer,  and 
their  records,  must  have  consideration. 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

THE   CAPTAIN  AND    HIS   FLEET 

THE  name  Houqua,  which  was  given  to  the 
first  ship  of  the  great  American  clipper 
fleet,  was  that  of  a  native  merchant  of 
Canton.  The  foreign  trade  of  Canton  was  done 
by  a  dozen  natives  who  owned  big  warehouses 
called  hongs,  and  who  were  known  as  hong 
merchants.  The  emperor  held  them  responsible 
for  all  import  duties  and  they  were  in  several 
ways  men  of  much  importance.  The  twelve  were 
under  the  command  of  one  known  as  the  senior 
hong  merchant,  and  the  one  who  held  this  post  in 
1843  was  named  Houqua,  a  man  who  was  famous 
for  ''sound  judgment;  true  prudence;  wary  circum- 
spection and  a  wise  economy,"  to  quote  an  appre- 
ciation printed  in  Hunt's  Merchants^  Magazine, 
Moreover  "his  predilections  were  American." 

While  the  ship  was  on  the  ways,  a  beautiful  full- 
rigged  model  of  the  Houqua  was  made  to  carry  as 
a  present  to  the  merchant,  but  he  had  died  in  Sep- 
tember, 1843,  before  her  keel  had  been  laid  on  the 
blocks.     The  model  was  delivered  to  his  family. 

In  her  first  voyage.  Captain  Palmer  commanded 
the  Houqua,  with  Thomas  Hunt  as  first  mate,  Wil- 

191 


192         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

Ham  Gardner,  second  mate,  and  Charles  P.  Low, 
third  mate.  Low,  in  his  autiobiography,  mentioned 
above,  naturally  had  much  to  say  about  the  ship 
and  her  officers.  He  had  already  made  a  voyage 
to  China  in  a  ship  called  the  Horatio,  the  fastest 
ship  in  the  China  trade  (1842),  "but  she  could  not 
make  over  ten  knots  an  hour." 

While  the  exact  date  of  the  launching  of  the 
Houqua  is  not  given,  he  notes  that  "Captain  N.  B. 
Palmer  had  no  superstition  as  to  Friday  being  a 
bad  day  to  sail,  though  at  that  time  sailors  objected 
to  going  to  sea  on  Friday  and  many  merchants  were 
superstitious  enough  to  wait  for  Saturday  and  even 
Sunday  before  sending  their  ships  to  sea.  The 
Houqua  was  launched  on  Friday,  was  towed  down 
town  on  Friday,  went  to  sea  on  Friday  and  arrived 
in  Hong  Kong  on  Friday,  but  she  was  a  very  lucky 
ship    for  years,   at   any  rate." 

The  ship  was  loaded  at  Peck  Slip.  "Times  had 
changed  in  the  short  interval  since  my  coming  home 
in  the  Horatio/'  (A  change  due  to  the  Opium  War.) 
"Then  the  ships  went  out  with  almost  no  cargo  but 
lead  and  coal,  and  now  our  ship  was  loaded  with 
pig  lead,  lumber,  cotton  sheetings  and  naval  stores — 
pitch,  tar  and  turpentine.  She  was  full,  so  there 
was  no  'tweendecks  for  the  sailmaker,  carpenter 
and  boys.  The  boys  had  to  go  to  the  forecastle 
with  the  men  and  a  house  over  the  main  hatch  was 
fitted  for  the  third  mate,  carpenter  and  sailmaker. 


The  Captain  and  His  Fleet  193 

It  was  a  good  sized  room  and  very  comfortable. 
.  .  .    We  had  quite  a  number  of  passengers. 

*'We  had  a  good  sendoff  by  our  family  and  a 
large  number  of  friends  who  went  down  the  bay 
with  us.  .  .  .  Captain  Palmer  was  a  rough  old  sailor. 
He  was  determined  to  see  me  get  along,  and  helped 
me  more  than  any  other  man  to  know  my  duty 
as  an  officer  and  to  fit  me  for  a  master.  .  .  .  Be- 
sides teaching  me  seamanship,  Mr.  Hunt,  with  the 
captain's  knowledge,  had  me  take  my  quadrant  and 
take  the  sun  at  noon  and  work  up  the  latitude  by 
observation  and  find  the  latitude  and  longitude  by 
dead  reckoning.  The  captain  is  the  only  one  who 
finds  the  longitude  by  chronometer.  .  .  .  Captain 
Palmer  and  Mr.  Hunt  got  along  splendidly  and 
of  course  everything  went  off  happily.  .  .  .  Mr. 
Hunt  was  a  jolly  fellow  and  apt  to  make  too  free" 
with  some  kinds  of  captains,  but  "Captain  Nat  Pal- 
mer rather  enjoyed  his  wit  and  stories." 

"The  ship  made  a  fine  passage  of  72  days  to 
Anjer,  where  we  laid  in  a  stock  of  chickens,  turtles, 
yams,  bananas,  oranges,  and  mangusteens.  Captain 
Palmer  was  a  believer  in  good  feed,  not  alone  for 
the  cabin;  he  believed  in  giving  the  sailors  the  very 
best  of  salt  beef  and  pork,  and  plenty  of  it;  and 
everything  else  they  had  to  eat  was  of  the  very 
best.  .  .  .  Here  we  filled  our  casks  with  fresh  water 
brought  by  the  natives.  After  doing  this  we  pro- 
ceeded up  the   China   Sea   and   sailed   into   Hong 


194         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

Kong,  84  days  from  New  York,  a  splendid 
passage." 

The  Houqua  was  soon  ordered  to  Whampoa  (12 
miles  below  Canton),  where  all  ships  were  loaded 
from  Chinese  boats  that  came  down  from  the  city. 
It  was  custom  of  the  ship  captains  to  go  up  to  the 
city  to  live  while  waiting  for  cargo,  but  Low  says 
that  "Captain  Palmer  was  very  fond  of  his  ship 
and  would  rather  live  on  board  at  Whampoa  and 
have  company  than  stay  in  Canton.  .  .  .  He  had 
a  room  on  shore  assigned  to  him  and  was  welcome 
to  stay  as  long  as  he  liked;  and  when  he  did  go 
up  he  had  a  fast  sampan,  or  Chinese  boat,  to  take 
him  up  and  bring  him  back. 

"All  the  ships  had  to  lie  a  long  time  in  port, 
and  after  the  rigging  was  overhauled  and  tarred 
down,  and  all  was  painted  aloft,  the  hull  was  painted 
inside  and  out,  the  deck  was  holystoned  as  white 
as  snow,  and  then  everything  was  kept  in  splendid 
order.'' 

Unhappily  for  the  peace  of  the  second  mate  of 
the  Houqua,  however,  the  sailors  had  a  pet  monkey 
that  was,  on  a  certain  Saturday  afternoon,  fastened 
on  the  bowsplit  within  reach  of  a  50-pound  keg 
of  black  paint.  "Like  a  monkey,  always  full  of 
mischief,  he  upset  the  paint,  which  ran  down  the 
scuppers  as  far  as  the  mainmast  and  over  the  clean 
white  deck.  The  second  mate  caught  the  monkey 
and  swabbed  the  paint  up  with  him  till  he  would 
hold  no  more,  and  then  threw  him  overboard.    But 


The  Captain  and  His  Fleet  195 

this  made  matters  worse,  for  the  monkey  caught 
the  side  ladder  and  came  up;  and  before  any  one 
could  stop  him  ran  the  whole  length  of  the  bulwarks 
leaving  black  paint  all  over  the  fresh  straw-colored 
paint,  and  making  an  awful  mess." 

As  the  ship  had  to  be  Immaculate  for  Sunday  all 
hands  turned  to  and  cleaned  up  the  mess  the  monkey 
had  made,  and  when  this  had  been  done  the  beast 
was  shaved,  washed  and  forgiven. 

The  Houqua's  passage  of  84  days  to  Hong  Kong 
was  then  the  shortest  on  record  and  It  has  not  often 
been  equaled  since  then.  She  left  for  New  York 
on  December  9,  1844,  and  arrived  in  90  days.  A 
year  later  she  made  the  passage  home  in  91  days. 

In  connection  with  these  two  passages  home,  ob- 
serve that  the  famous  Flying  Cloudy  which  made 
the  record  run  of  89  days  from  New  York  to  San 
Francisco,  used  94  days  in  making  her  shortest 
passage  from  Canton  to  New  York  and  96  in  mak- 
ing her  next  best  run  on  the  route.  The  Comet, 
that  made  the  record  of  76  days  from  San  Fran- 
cisco east,  was  99  days  making  her  best  run  from 
Canton  to  New  York.  The  Hoiiqua,  though  smaller 
than  either  of  these  splendid  flyers,  was  therefore 
manifestly  a  peer. 

It  may  also  be  noted  that  the  total  number  of 
days  passed  at  sea  by  the  Houqua  during  her  first 
voyage  was  174.  The  Rainbow  in  her  second  and 
most  famous  voyage  was  180  days  at  sea.  Captain 
John  Land  of   the   Rainbow  boasted,   after   com- 


196         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

pleting  her  second  voyage,  that  she  was  the  fastest 
ship  on  earth,  and  his  boast  was  accepted  thereafter 
by  about  all  writers  until  Captain  Clark  published 
the  record  of  the  Hoiiqua  in  "The  Clipper  Ship 
Era."  The  Rainbow  never  equaled  the  Houqua^s 
record. 

At  the  end  of  the  first  voyage  Captain  Nat  left 
the  Houqua  to  his  brother  Alexander,  but  he  took 
command  again  for  the  third  voyage,  "taking  his 
wife  and  a  niece  of  his.  Miss  Fanning."  Low  was 
now  the  mate  of  the  ship  and  his  autobiography 
gives  several  Interesting  little  sketches  of  the  mas- 
ter.    For  example: 

One  day  when  "the  ship  was  rolling  fearfully  .  .  . 
the  captain  put  his  head  out  of  the  cabin  scuttle  and 
asked  me  how  the  weather  was.  I  told  him  It  was 
more  moderate  just  then,  but  thought  It  would  blow 
again  at  8  o'clock.     He  then  said: 

"  'Mr.  Low,  shake  the  reefs  out  of  the  maintop- 
sail,  set  the  main  topgallantsail  and  main  royal,  and 
let  her  roll  over,  shipshape  and  Bristol  fashion,  with 
all  her  canvas  on  her.'  At  eight  it  began  to  blow 
again  and  the  captain  put  his  head  out  of  the  scuttle 
and  called  out : 

"  'Mr.  Low,  take  In  the  main  royal,  the  main  top- 
gallantsail and  close  reef  the  maintopsall,  and  let 
her  roll  over  and  be  damned  to  her.' 

"He  was  very  passionate,"  Low  says.  "In  calm 
weather  he  would  come  on  deck  with  an  old  v/hlte 
beaver  hat  on,  take  It  off  and  stamp  on  it,  and  damn 


The  Captain  and  His  Fleet  197 

the  calm  and  everything  else.  But  he  never  abused 
the  men." 

Because  so  much  had  been  said  in  novels  of  the  sea 
about  the  cruelty  of  the  officers  of  American  ships 
in  the  clippper  days,  perhaps  an  actual  use  of  force 
upon  an  American  ship  may  be  described.  With 
Captain  Charles  Porter  Low  in  command,  the 
Houqua  sailed  from  New  York  for  China  on  April 
6,  1849,  ^^d  a  large  party  of  friends  of  the  Lows 
and  of  Captain  Palmer  went  down  to  Sandy  Hook 
with  her  to  celebrate  her  departure.  As  it  hap- 
pened, sailors  were  scarce  in  New  York,  at  that  time, 
and  the  crimps  had  made  up  the  crew  of  the  Houqua 
from  such  men  as  could  be  scraped  up.  As  the  ship 
approached  Sandy  Hook  the  sailmaker  went  to  his 
room  and  refused  to  come  out  and  go  to  work  when 
ordered  to  do  so  by  the  mate.  Thereupon  the  mate 
took  him  by  the  throat  and  dragged  him  forth. 

This  use  of  force  overcame  the  man's  obstinacy, 
but  when  the  pleasure-seekers  saw  the  mate  use 
force,  they  were  so  badly  shocked  (although  the 
man  was  not  beaten)  that  Captain  Nat  Palmer  felt 
obliged  to  bring  the  Houqua  to  anchor,  take  the 
mate  back  to  New  York  and  bring  another  in  his 
place.  The  Houqua  was  actually  detained  several 
hours  in  order  to  replace  a  mate  who  had  used  force 
to  compel  an  obstinate  seaman  to  do  duty. 

Low  mentions  once  more  the  unusual  drilling  he 
received  in  order  to  fit  him  for  the  command  of  a 
ship.     He  not  only  worked  out  the  longitude  by 


198         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

the  chronometer  but  he  was  allowed  to  put  the  ship 
about  in  all  kinds  of  weather.  In  short  he  had 
full  command  of  the  deck.  He  was  22  years  old 
at  the  time. 

Of  the  captain^s  strength  of  body  Low  wrote: 
"If  it  was  necessary  he  could  stand  any  fatigue 
and  exposure  and  I  am  quite  sure  that"  his  allow- 
ing Low  to  manage  the  ship  "was  to  teach  me  con- 
fidence in  myself  and  also  to  give  me  experience." 

Speaking  of  live  passengers  in  the  cabin — all 
young  men — Low  says : 

"They  had  plenty  of  liquor  on  board  and  almost 
every  evening  they  would  get  on  deck  and  sing  songs 
and  spin  yarns  until  10  o'clock,  when  they  had  to 
retire,  for  no  lights  were  allowed  after  that.  Cap- 
tain Palmer  would  always  absent  himself  till  they 
got  through  their  fun,  but  he  never  objected." 

The  most  remarkable  passage  of  the  Houqua  was 
that  made  in  a  run  home  from  Shanghai  in  1850. 
The  Houqua  was  then  six  years  old  and  she  had 
been  driven  to  the  limit  of  endurance  during  all 
her  life.  She  had  theretofore  been  thrown  on  her 
beam  ends  in  a  cyclone  and  had  been  "strained 
and  weakened,"  to  use  the  words  of  Captain  Clark 
in  connection  with  the  Sea  Witch  in  one  of  her  races. 
To  those  words  Captain  Clark  added: 

"Moreover,  a  wooden  ship,  after  five  or  six  years, 
begins  to  lose  her  speed  through  absorbing  water, 
and  becomes  sluggish  in  light  airs." 


The  Captain  and  His  Fleet  199 

In  spite  of  handicaps  thus  described,  the  Hoiiqua 
sailed  home  from  Shanghai  in  87  days,  as  a  letter 
from  Captain  Palmer  to  his  family  said  at  the  time. 
It  was  a  record-breaking  passage  at  the  time,  but 
the  important  fact  in  the  run  is  that  it  shows  she 
had  been  built  for  strength  and  endurance  as  well 
as  speed.  A  further  proof  of  her  efficiency  is  found 
in  the  fact  that  she  was  a  profitable  ship  in  the 
long-haul  trades  until  1865,  when  she  was  lost  in 
a  typhoon  in  the  China  Sea. 

This  matter  of  endurance  is  of  importance  here 
because  the  influence  of  a  ship  upon  ships  built  sub- 
sequently depends  upon  the  profits  made  more  than 
upon  any  one  fact  in  her  history.  For  profit,  the 
Houqua  was  one  of  the  most  notable  of  her  day 
because,  first,  she  was  efficient,  and  next  because 
she  cost  comparatively  little  in  the  beginning.  When 
the  Houqua  was  built,  A.  A.  Low  &  Brother  oc- 
cupied a  small  office  in  Fletcher  Street.  The  profit 
made  by  the  ship  enabled  them  to  move  to  com- 
modious quarters  in  Burling  Slip.  The  great  profits 
made  by  her  and  the  other  clippers  built  by  the 
firm  created  the  great  fortune  for  which  they  were 
famous.  It  was  because  these  ships  were  profitable 
that  Mr.  Seth  Low,  son  of  A.  A.  Low,  was  able 
to  give  Columbia  University  a  million  dollars  while 
he  was  at  the  head  of  that  famous  school. 

Of  course  Captain  Palmer  shared  in  this  pros- 
perity. He  did,  indeed,  receive  only  $500  for  de- 
signing and  superintending  the  construction  of  each 


200         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

ship  the  firm  brought  out,  for  that  was  a  day  of 
low  wages;  but  he  owned  a  quarter  of  the  Houqua 
and  he  held  shares — usually  an  eighth — in  each  one 
he  built.  It  was  because  of  his  success  as  a  ship 
owner  as  well  as  a  ship  designer  that  he  came  to 
be  ranked  as  one  of  the  foremost  ship  merchants 
in  New  York. 

It  was  the  profit  made  by  the  Houqiia,  of  course, 
that  led  the  Lows  to  build  the  Samuel  Russell,  of 
940  tons.  She  was  named  for  the  head  of  the 
famous  American  firm  of  Russell  &  Co.,  of  Hong 
Kong. 

Captain  Clark,  in  "The  Clipper  Ship  Era,"  says, 
"She  was  a  beautiful  vessel,  heavily  sparred,  with 
plenty  of  light  canvas  for  moderate  weather,  and 
every  inch  a  clipper," 

The  Russell  is  frequently  mentioned  in  the  stories 
of  the  American  clippers.  For  example,  it  is  said 
that  in  her  first  passage  out  she  required  114  days, 
a  long  time  for  a  clipper;  and  yet  on  one  day  when 
she  had  a  breeze  she  covered  328  miles  in  twenty- 
four  consecutive  hours,  a  distance  that  was  then 
astounding.  Better  yet,  in  a  run  home  from  Canton 
in  1 85 1  (when  she  was  five  years  old)  she  covered 
6,722  miles  in  thirty  consecutive  days,  an  average 
of  226  miles  a  day. 

In  one  magazine.  Captain  Palmer  is  credited  with 
this  run  but  he  was  in  New  York  at  the  time.  He 
had  recently  sent  the  Contest  afloat  and  was  prepar- 
ing to  build  the  David  Brown. 


The  Captain  and  His  Fleet  201 

In  the  meantime  the  Russell  had  engaged  in  a 
famous  race  from  New  York  around  the  Horn  to 
San  Francisco,  in  which  seven  clippers  competed, 
the  more  famous  of  which  were  the  Houqua  and 
the  Sea  Witch.  The  Russell  arrived  out  in  109 
days,  and  thus  broke  the  previous  record  by  twelve 
days,  but  the  Sea  Witch  made  the  passage  in  97 
days.    The  Houqua  was  120  days  on  the  way. 

The  Russell  was  commanded  by  Captain  Charles 
P.  Low,  for  this  voyage,  and  his  account  of  it  seems 
worth  quoting  in  part  because  it  shows  not  only 
the  quality  of  the  Palmer  design  but  how  ships  were 
loaded  when  freights  were  high.  Low  received  let- 
ters, while  in  Whampoa,  telling  him  he  was  to  take 
the  Russell  on  his  return  to  New  York,  and  the 
Houqua,  on  arrival  at  New  York,  was  towed  directly 
to  the  pier  where  the  Russell  had  been  taking  in 
cargo.  Low  found  Captain  Theodore  Palmer,  a 
young  brother  of  Captain  Nat,  temporarily  in  com- 
mand of  the  Russell,  and  he  was  to  take  her  to  sea 
in  case  Low  failed  to  arrive  in  time  or  refused  to 
go  in  her. 

Palmer  at  once  inquired  if  Low  would  go  in  her 
and  Low  replied  that  he  would.  The  narrative 
continues ; 

"He  [Theo  Palmer]  then  went  on  board  the 
ship  and  ordered  the  mate  to  have  all  the  sails  taken 
out  of  the  fore  peak  and  put  in  the  cabin  to  make 
room  for  more  freight.    The  mate  said: 


202         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

''  'Captain  Low  is  going  in  the  ship,  is  he  not?' 
and  Captain  Palmer  said: 

"  'Yes,  he  will  take  command.'     The  mate  said: 

"  'I  knew  it,  for  if  you  were  going  this  would  not 
be  done;  for  the  ship  is  loaded  now  as  deep  as  a 
sand  barge.' 

"And  she  was;  her  scuppers  were  not  more  than  a 
foot  out  of  water.  There  was  plenty  of  freight 
offering  and  the  ship  had  a  freight  list  of  nearly 
$75,000,  and  she  received  a  dollar  and  a  half  a  foot, 
or  $60  a  ton,  for  all  she  had  on  board.  .  .  .  On  the 
15th  of  January,  1850,  I  left  the  pilot  at  Sandy 
Hook,  bound  on  a  voyage  around  the  world.  We 
had  a  fresh  wind  from  westward,  and  when  we 
reached  the  Gulf  Stream  we  found  how  deep  in 
the  water  the  ship  was  and  how  slowly  she  rose 
to  the  seas.  The  wind  increased  to  a  heavy  gale 
and  while  running  under  close  reefed  topsails  and 
a  foresail,  a  sea  boarded  us  over  the  starboard 
quarter."  It  swept  the  captain  and  the  mate  for 
sixty  feet  along  the  deck  and  landed  the  man  at  the 
wheel  in  the  mizzen  rigging.  All  the  compasses  in 
the  ship  were  destroyed  save  a  little  one  designed 
for  small  boats,  "but  we  managed  to  get  along  and 
in  twenty  days  crossed  the  line,  ...  a  great  run  of 
luck."  Off  Rio,  a  ship  bound  for  San  Francisco 
was  overhauled  and  two  compasses  were  borrowed 
from  her. 

Then  came  the  Horn.  Low  was  in  waters  with 
which  he  was  unacquainted.     "The  barometer  was 


The  Captain  and  His  Fleet  203 

unusually  low  and  I  lost  some  days  from  carrying 
small  canvas  In  preparation  for  gales  that  never 
came.  .  .  .  We  had  very  high  seas  and  the  ship's 
deck  was  flooded,  day  after  day.  Sometimes  she 
would  go  under  water  and  it  seemed  as  though  she 
would  never  come  up." 

And  yet  she  arrived  in  San  Francisco  in  109  days 
from  New  York,  breaking  the  record,  and  the  San 
Francisco  newspapers  Issued  extras  in  celebration 
of  the  event. 

It  is  worth  recalling  that  Low  sailed  the  Russell 
into  port  without  a  pilot.  The  pilot  hailed  him  off 
the  Farallones  and  Low  asked  the  price.  The  pilot 
replied  $8  a  foot  for  the  total  draft  of  the  ship, 
but  he  added  in  a  reply  to  a  question  that  if  the  ship 
entered  without  a  pilot  only  $4  a  foot  would  be 
collected.  The  ship  was  drawing  twenty  feet.  Low 
says  he  sailed  in  without  a  pilot  in  order  to  save 
$80,  but  the  context  shows  that  he  was  animated 
by  pride  of  achievement  only.  At  any  rate  he  de- 
clared that  a  captain  who  was  worth  his  salt  should 
be  able  to  enter  a  port  like  San  Francisco  aided 
by  the  chart  only,  even  though  he  had  never  seen  it 
before.  It  was,  in  fact,  characteristic  of  our  sailors 
of  the  sail  to  handle  their  ships  in  ways  requiring 
extraordinary  skill  and  then  airily  declare  that  they 
were  merely  anxious  to  save  some  trifling  sum  of 
money. 

In  his  summary  of  records  of  the  California 
clippers   Captain   Clark  divides  the  passage   from 


204         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

New  York  Into  sections  and  gives  the  records  of 
various  clippers  In  each  section.  The  Great  Re- 
public, after  she  was  rebuilt  by  Captain  Palmer,  as 
described  In  another  chapter,  held  the  honors  for 
the  passage  from  Sandy  Hook  to  the  Equator,  hav- 
ing made  the  run  in  i6  days.  The  Samuel  Russell 
made  the  shortest  run  from  Cape  St.  Roque  to  50° 
south  latitude  In  the  Atlantic  In  16  days.  The  Young 
America  made  the  record  run  from  50°  south  In  the 
Atlantic  to  50°  south  In  the  Pacific  in  6  days.  The 
Live  Yankee  and  the  Mary  L.  Sutton  ran  from  50° 
south  to  the  Equator  In  the  Pacific  in  16  days,  while 
the  White  Squall  made  the  record  from  the  Equator 
to  San  Francisco  in  14  days. 

The  White  Squall  (1,118  tons)  was  "very  simi- 
lar In  design  and  construction  to  the  Samuel  Russell 
and  Oriental,'^  according  to  Captain  Clark. 

If  any  ship  had  been  able  to  equal  the  record 
over  each  of  the  sections  (allowing  two  days  for 
the  run  from  the  Equator  to  Cape  St.  Roque),  she 
might  have  made  the  passage  from  Sandy  Hook  to 
San  Francisco  In  less  than  70  days. 

The  Russell  endured  the  strains  of  hard  driving 
until  1870,  when  she  was  wrecked  in  Caspar  Strait. 

The  most  famous  of  the  clippers  designed  by 
Captain  Palmer  was  the  Oriental,  which  followed 
the  Russell  in  1849.  I^  one  respect  she  was  the 
most  famous  of  all  the  clipper  fleet,  for  it  was  when 
she  appeared  in  London  after  a  record  run  from 
Canton  that  the  British  for  the  first  time,   freely 


Captain  Nathaniel  B.  Palmer. 


The  Captain  and  His  Fleet  205 

and  cordially  acknowledged  American  supremacy  In 
the  long-haul  trades,  as  they  had  previously  acknowl- 
edged our  lead  on  the  North  Atlantic.  The  Oriental 
was  185  feet  long,  36  wide  and  21  deep.  She 
measured  1,003  tons  and  she  cost  $70,000. 

The  Oriental  sailed  from  New  York  bound  for 
China  on  September  14,  1849,  under  the  command 
of  Captain  Theodore  D.  Palmer,  a  younger  brother 
of  Captain  Nat.  That  he  was  abundantly  able  to 
sustain  the  reputation  of  the  Palmer  family  was 
apparent  after  he  had  made  two  voyages  in  the 
Oriental.  For  his  first  return  from  Canton  was 
made  in  81  days,  or  only  four  days  more  than  the 
record  short  passage.  Because  of  the  speed  of  the 
ship,  and  because  of  the  record  of  the  designer  as 
well  as  that  of  the  captain,  the  Oriental  was  next 
chartered  to  carry  tea  from  Canton  to  London.* 

On  May  i8th  the  ship  sailed  from  New  York  for 
Hong  Kong  and  arrived  out  In  81  days,  breaking 
the  record  for  the  passage  east.  Then  she  took  on 
a  load  of  1,600  tons  of  tea  for  London.  No 
American  ship  had  ever  been  chartered  to  carry  tea 
from  China  to  London.  In  fact,  no  Yankee  clipper 
of  any  size  had  appeared  in  any  English  port, 
though,  as  Lindsay  notes  in  his  history,  the  records 
of  the  clippers  were  as  well  known  In  London  as 
In  New  York.  Young  Captain  Theo.  Palmer  knew 
very    well    how    the    seafaring    population    of    the 

*The  ship  was  loaded  by  Russell  &  Co.,  of  whom  Captain  R.  B. 
Forbes,  of  Boston,  was  then  the  head. 


2o6         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

British  capital  would  receive  him  if  he  were  able 
to  make  a  record  passage,  and  he  realized  that  he 
had  other  reasons  for  driving  his  ship  to  the  utmost 
limit.  In  fact,  he  felt  that  the  honor  of  the  Ameri- 
can merchant  service  was,  in  a  very  real  sense,  in 
his  keeping.  But  while  he  thus  had  every  induce- 
ment for  vigilance  and  persistence  he  must  have  felt 
a  sinking  of  hope  when  he  was  ready  to  depart,  for 
an  adverse  change  in  the  monsoon  occurred  before 
the  ship  was  loaded. 

Monsoon  is  the  name  given  to  the  prevailing 
winds  along  the  south  and  east  coasts  of  Asia,  and 
more  especially  the  winds  that  prevail  on  the  Indian 
Ocean  at  certain  seasons. 

"From  October  to  April,"  says  the  Cyclopedia  of 
Commerce,  *'a  gentle,  dry,  northeast  breeze  pre- 
vails." It  was  against  this  gentle  breeze  that  Cap- 
tain John  Land  sailed  the  Rainbow  in  her  second 
passage  to  Canton.  "From  April  till  October,"  con- 
tinues the  Cyclopedia,  "a  violent  southwest  wind 
blows,  accompanied  with  rain." 

Captain  Palmer  in  his  effort  to  make  a  notable 
passage  from  Canton  to  London  was  obliged  to  beat 
his  way  down  the  Asiatic  coast  and  across  the  Indian 
Ocean  against  this  ^'violent  southwest  wind." 

It  was  a  race  against  time.  All  previous  record- 
breaking  passages  from  Canton  had  been  made  with 
studding-sails  spread  alow  and  aloft  before  the 
"gentle,  dry,  northeast  breeze."  The  Oriental  had 
to  smash  her  way  through  adverse  gales,  but  she 


The  Captain  and  His  Fleet  207 

won.  When  the  British  clipper  Challenger^  in  later 
years,  made  the  passage  in  113  days  she  was  hailed 
as  a  superb  sailer,  and  so  she  was;  but  the  Oriental 
was  driven  to  London  in  97  days. 

As  Meloney  says  in  the  story  already  quoted: 

"The  Oriental  was  the  first  out-and-out  clipper 
London  ever  saw.  Photographs  of  her  were 
printed;  she  became  the  subject  of  newspaper  lead- 
ers adjuring  Britishers  to  take  a  lesson  from  her 
or  prepare  to  forsake  the  sea.  .  .  >  The  Gov- 
ernment copied  her  lines  while  she  lay  in  drydock. 
Afterwards  the  lines  of  other  Yankee  flyers  were 
taken  off  similarly,  but  the  Oriental  was  the  first 
inspiration  of  British  builders,  who,  though  they 
were  to  launch  many  beautiful  cracks,  never  suc- 
ceeded in  producing  one  to  vie  with  the  American 
champions."     (Italics  not  in  original.) 

Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer  was  in  London 
when  the  Oriental  arrived,  and  a  letter  he  wrote 
about  the  matter,  said  that  Captain  Theodore  was 
"a  Lion"  in  that  port.  He  also  brought  home  a 
copy  of  the  Illustrated  London  News,  dated  De- 
cember 21,  1850,  which  contained  a  picture  of  the 
Oriental,  and  the  following : 

"The  Ship  Oriental. 
"Although   many   British   ships  have  arrived   at 
New  York  and  Boston  from  China,  since  the  altera- 
tion in  the  Navigation  Laws,   the  first  American 


2o8         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

ship  (the  Oriental)  only  arrived  in  the  West 
India  docks  on  the  3d  instant. 

"The  ship  Oriental,  of  New  York,  Captain 
Palmer  (above  1,000  tons),  was  built  for  the 
China  trade :  she  sailed  from  New  York  on  her 
first  voyage,  the  14th  of  September,  1849,  ^^^  ^^' 
rived  at  Hong  Kong  by  the  Eastern  Passage,  Jan- 
uary I,  1850,  being  109  days.'  She  discharged  and 
took  in  a  full  cargo  for  New  York,  sailed  30th 
January,  and  arrived  in  New  York  April  21st,  mak- 
ing eighty-one  days'  passage;  discharged  and  took 
in  full  cargo,  and  sailed  May  i8th  for  Hong  Kong; 
arrived  August  8th,  making  eighty-one  days'  pas- 
sage :  discharged  and  took  in  full  cargo  and  sailed 
for  London,  August  28th;  beat  down  the  China  sea 
against  the  S.  W.  monsoon  in  twenty-one  days  to 
Anjer,  and  arrived  off  Scilly  in  ninety-one  days,  and 
into  West  India  dock  in  ninety-seven  days.  A  period 
of  fourteen  months  and  nineteen  days  has  elapsed 
since  she  sailed  on  her  first  voyage  from  New  York, 
since  which  time  she  has  sailed  67,000  miles,  and 
is  now  chartered  to  sail  again  for  Canton,  on  loth 
January,  185 1.  The  above  facts  are  taken  from  the 
log-book,  by  permission  of  Capt.  T.  D.  Palmer,  by 
M.  J.  Skiller  of  Wapping. 

*'We  should  add  that  the  Oriental  brings  about 
1,600  tons  of  tea  at  £6  per  ton,  whilst  all  the  ships 
loading  at  Whampoa  at  the  same  time  only  got 
£3  I  OS.    The  bulk  of  her  cargo  is  consigned  to  three 


The  Captain  and  His  Fleet  209 

firms  of  the  highest  eminence,  whose  Correspondents 
av^alled  themselves  of  the  opportunity  even  at  such  a 
high  rate  of  freight,  the  Oriental  being  known 
for  her  fast  sailing  qualities,  which  she  fully  verified. 

"This  Is  a  severe  lesson  to  our  ship  owners,  and 
will  show  them  that  the  British  merchants  abroad 
are  still  ready  to  pay  high  freights  for  superior  ships. 

"The  main  dimensions  of  the  Oriental  are; 
Length,  183  feet;  beam,  2>^  feet;  hold,  21  feet;  poop 
deck,  45  feet;  topgallant  forecastle,  30  feet." 

Lindsay,  the  English  author  of  a  "History  of 
Merchant  Shipping,"  necessarily  gave  considerable 
attention  to  the  American  clippers  In  the  China  trade. 
He  says  that  beginning  In  1845  "various  vessels 
were  despatched  from  New  York  and  Boston  to 
Whampoa  [Canton's  port]  which  surpassed  ours 
in  speed,  having  low  hulls,  great  beam,  very  fine 
lines  and  with  yards  so  square  as  to  spread  a  far 
larger  amount  of  canvas  in  proportion  to  their 
tonnage  than  any  vessels  hitherto  afloat." 

The  names  of  the  clippers  which  had  especially 
attracted  his  attention  were  given  (Vol.  Ill,  p.  292), 
in  the  following  paragraph: 

"There  is  no  doubt  that  at  this  period  there  were 
few  ships  afloat  which  could  rival  In  speed  the 
Oriental,  Challenge,  Sea  JVitch,  Flying  Cloud  and 
various  similar  vessels  the  Americans  had  sent  forth 
to  compete  with  us  In  the  trade  from  China." 


2IO         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

In  describing  the  effect  of  the  Oriental  upon  the 
people  of  London  Captain  Clark's  "Clipper  Ship 

Era"  says: 

"Throngs  of  people  visited  the  West  India  Docks 
to  look  at  the  Oriental.  They  certainly  saw  a  beau- 
tiful ship ;  every  line  of  her  long,  black  hull  indicated 
power  and  speed;  her  tall,  raking  masts  and  skysail 
yards  towered  above  the  spars  of  the  shipping  in 
the  docks ;  her  white  cotton  sails  were  neatly  furled 
under  bunt,  quarter,  and  yardarm  gaskets;  while 
her  topmast,  topgallant  and  royal  studdingsail 
booms  and  long,  heavy  lower  studdingsail  booms 
swung  in  along  her  rails,  gave  an  idea  of  the  enor- 
mous spread  of  canvas  held  in  reserve  for  light 
and  moderate  leading  winds;  her  blocks,  standing 
and  running  rigging  were  neatly  fitted  to  stand  great 
stress  and  strain,  but  with  no  unnecessary  top-ham- 
per or  weight  aloft.  On  deck  everything  was  for 
use.  The  spare  spars,  scraped  bright  and  varnished, 
were  neatly  lashed  along  the  water  ways;  the  inner 
side  of  the  bulwarks,  the  rails  and  the  deck  houses 
were  painted  pure  white;  the  hatch  coamings,  sky- 
lights, pin-rails,  and  companions  were  of  Spanish 
mahogany;  the  narrow  planks  of  her  clear-pine  deck, 
with  the  gratings  and  ladders,  were  scrubbed  and 
holystoned  to  the  whiteness  of  cream;  the  brass  cap- 
stan heads,  bells,  belaying  pins,  gangway  stanchions, 
and  brass  work  about  the  wheel,  binnacle  and  sky- 
lights were  of  glittering  brightness.     Throughout 


The  Captain  and  His  Fleet  211 

she  was  a  triumph  of  the  shipwright's  and  seaman's 
toil  and  skill. 

''No  ship  like  the  Oriental  had  ever  been  seen  in 
England,  and  the, ship  owners  of  London  were  con- 
strained to  admit  that  they  had  nothing  to  compare 
with  her  in  speed,  beauty  of  model,  rig,  or  construc- 
tion. It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  arrival  of 
this  vessel  in  London  with  her  cargo  of  tea  in  this 
crisis  of  1850,  aroused  almost  as  much  apprehen- 
sion and  excitement  in  Great  Britain  as  was  created 
by  the  memorable  Tea  Party  held  in  Boston  in 
I773-" 

The  London  Times  is  quoted  as  follows: 

"We  must  run  a  race  with  our  gigantic  and  un- 
shackled rival.  We  must  set  our  long-practised 
skill,  our  steady  industry  and  our  dogged  determina- 
tion against  his  youth,  ingenuity  and  ardor.  It  is 
a  father  who  races  with  his  son.  A  fell  necessity 
constrains  us  and  we  must  not  be  beat.  Let  our 
ship-builders  and  employers  take  warning  in  time." 

The  Yankee  ship  of  the  sail  was  at  last  the  swag- 
gering lord  of  all  the  Seven  Seas,  and  it  was  a  ship 
designed  by  Captain  Palmer  that  compelled  this 
final  recognition  of  American  ability.  The  captain 
had  come  late  to  the  work  of  building  up  the  reputa- 
tion of  the  Liverpool  packet  fleet,  but  he  led  all 
others  in  spreading  the  fame  of  the  clippers  in  the 


212         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

home  of  Britannia,  the  one-time  (also  the  modern) 
mistress  of  the  seas. 

The  next  ship  built  after  the  Oriental  to  the 
captain's  designs  was  named  for  him — the  TV.  B. 
Palmer.  She  was  one  of  the  largest  of  his  clippers — 
214  feet  long  by  39  broad  and  22  deep.  She  meas- 
ured 1,490  tons.  Captain  Clark  wrote  as  follows 
regarding  this  ship : 

*'The  N.  B.  Palmer  was  perhaps  the  most  famous 
ship  built  in  the  Westervelt  yard.  In  China  she 
was  known  as  'the  Yacht,'  and  with  her  nettings 
in  the  tops,  brass  guns,  gold  stripe  and  her  lavish 
entertainments  on  the  Fouth  of  July  and  Washing- 
ton's Birthday,  she  well  deserved  the  title.  .  .  . 
A  full  rigged  model  of  the  A^.  B.  Palmer  was  ex- 
hibited at  the  Crystal  Palace,  London,  in  185 1,  and 
attracted  much  attention  as  a  fine  example  of  the 
American  clipper  type." 

Captain  Charles  P.  Low,  who  commanded  this 
ship  for  several  years,  wrote  as  follows  regarding 
her  launching: 

"Some  time  in  March,  185 1,  the  ship  was  ready 
for  launching;  she  had  all  her  spars  aloft,  royal 
and  skysail  yards  crossed,  and  ...  no  ballast  but 
her  chain  cables  in  her  hold.  ...  A  finer,  hand- 
somer ship  never  was  built.  .  .  .  Captain  Palmer, 
to  my  disgust,  put  me  in  charge  of  a  steam  tug, 
with  a  large  number  of  young  girls  and  men  and 
women  of  his  acquaintance,  to  go  and  see  the  launch- 


The  Captain  and  His  Fleet  213 

ing  from  the  water.  I  wanted  to  be  launched  in  the 
ship.  However,  I  had  a  jolly  crowd  to  take  care  of, 
and  we  had  a  fine  lunch,  champagne  and  cigars,  on 
board,  and  a  better  view  of  the  launching  than  they 
had  on  shore.  It  was  a  splendid  sight  to  see  that 
huge  craft  slide  down  the  ways.  .  .  .  After  it  was 
over  ...  I  went  up  to  the  ship  yard  and  found 
the  ship  alongside  the  wharf,  leaking  like  a  sieve, 
and  Captain  Palmer  in  no  good  humor." 

It  was  then  too  late  to  put  her  in  drydock  to  ex- 
amine her  for  the  leak  and  so  men  were  hired 
to  pump  her  out  during  the  night.  Next  day  it  was 
learned  that  an  inch  and  a  quarter  treenail  had  been 
left  out  below  the  water  line,  "and  a  whole  lot  of 
water  can  be  forced  through  such  a  hole." 

The  ship  sailed  for  San  Francisco  on  May  6,  185 1, 
and  arrived  out  without  special  incident  in  107  days. 
A  pilot  took  her  in  and  anchored  her  three  miles 
from  her  wharf.  Low  rowed  ashore  and  met  the 
owners'  agent,  "a  Nantucket  man  and  a  regular 
driver,"  who  "wanted  to  know  why  I  had  not 
brought  the  ship  up  near  the  wharf." 

"The  pilot  refused  to  bring  her  any  nearer,"  was 
the  reply. 

"The  ship  must  come  up  to  the  wharf." 

"If  she  must  she  must." 

Thereupon  Captain  Low  went  back  to  the  ship 
where  the  pilot  refused  once  more  to  take  her 
to  the  wharf — why,  is  not  told.     So  Low  called  all 


214         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

hands  and  set  all  plain  sail  to  skysails.  The  wind 
was  light  abeam.  "We  got  under  way  and  went 
along  finely.  I  knew  that  sails  would  stop  a  ship  as 
well  as  send  her  ahead  and  I  kept  every  stitch  of 
canvas  on  her.  ...  As  soon  as  I  got  near  enough  I 
backed  the  main  yard  and  went  along  side  so  easily 
that  there  was  hardly  a  jar.  ...  A  great  crowd 
on  the  wharf  cheered  me  most  heartily." 

The  Palmer  sailed  from  San  Francisco  to  Canton 
in  ballast,  carrying  75  Chinese  bodies  as  freight  at 
$75  per  body.  Her  passage  from  Canton  to  New 
York  was  made  in  84  days.  In  her  next  voyage 
the  Palmer  made  her  best  records  for  speed.  Be- 
ginning on  the  third  day  out  of  New  York  she 
covered  396  miles  in  twenty-four  hours.  On  July  i, 
1852,  she  overhauled  the  celebrated  Flying  Cloud 
that  had  sailed  ten  days  ahead  of  her.  The  Flying 
Cloud  eventually  beat  her  to  San  Francisco  but  she 
left  San  Francisco  ten  days  after  the  Flying  Cloud 
and  beat  her  to  China.  And  she  beat  the  Flying 
Cloud  from  Canton  to  New  York. 

In  April,  1854,  the  Palmer  loaded  whale  oil  at 
Honolulu  for  New  York  and  sailed  on  the  23d.  She 
crossed  the  line  in  six  days  and  rounded  the  Horn 
in  thirty-eight  "with  skysails  and  royal  studdingsails 
set.  In  57  days  we  crossed  the  line  in  the  Atlantic, 
a  splendid  passage.  We  were  ten  days  ahead  of  the 
famous  Sovereign  of  the  SeasJ* 

This  is  not  to  claim  that  the  A^.  B.  Palmer  was 


The  Captain  and  His  Fleet  215 

a  swifter  ship  than  either  the  Flying  Cloud  or  the 
Sovereign  of  the  Seas,  but  it  Is  to  say  with  emphasis 
that  she  was  of  their  class — one  of  the  swiftest  of 
the  clippers.* 

Captain  Low  was  one  of  the  few  captains  of  the 
day  who  carried  their  wives.  Mrs.  Low  was  a 
woman  of  remarkable  beauty  and  whenever  the  ship 
was  in  port  the  cabin  was  a  much-sought  social  center. 

The  Palmer  was  eventually  sold  In  Europe. 

The  years  1 850-1 851  were  memorable  In  the 
annals  of  Captain  Palmer's  life  because  of  the  build- 
ing of  another  notable  clipper,  named  the  Contest, 
This  ship  measured  1,098  tons  and  for  her  size 
she  was  a  splendid  racer.  Her  record  in  the  run 
from  New  York  to  San  Francisco  was  97  days, 
the  same  as  that  of  the  Sea  Witch.  In  the  return 
run  to  New  York  she  sailed  in  a  race  with  the 
Northern  Light,  which  was  bound  for  Boston. 

The  Contest  covered  the  16,000  miles  in  80  days, 
but  the  Northern  Light  arrived  at  her  destination 
in  78  days  and  5  hours. 

The  Contest  was  one  of  the  beautiful  Yankee 
clippers  captured  by  Captain  Raphael  Semmes,  of 
the  Confederate  cruiser  Alabama.  The  ship  was 
burned  off  Batavia,  while  on  her  way  from  Yoko- 

*  Mr.  J.  Murray  Forbes,  of  Boston,  is  probably  the  only  man 
now  living  who  sailed  in  the  A^.  B.  Palmer.  In  1863  he  crossed 
from  San  Francisco  to  Canton  in  her,  and  passed  through  a  typhoon 
that  carried  away  some  top  hamper,  but  demonstrated  that  she  was 
an  excellent  sea  boat. 


2i6         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

hama  to  New  York,  on  November  ii,  1863. 
Semmes  described  the  capture  and  destruction  of 
the  ship  in  his  "Service  Afloat"  as  follows: 

"It  was  now  about  two  o'clock  A.  M.,  and  the 
Alabama  getting  up  her  anchor,  steamed  out  into 
the  China  Sea,  by  the  light  of  the  burning  ship.  We 
had  thus  lighted  a  bonfire  at  either  end  of  the  re- 
nowned old  Strait  of  Sunda.  After  having  thus  ad- 
vertised our  presence  in  this  passage,  it  was  useless 
to  remain  in  it  longer.  Ships  approaching  it  would 
take  the  alarm,  and  seek  some  other  outlet  into  the 
Indian  Ocean.  Most  of  the  ships  coming  down 
the  China  Sea,  with  a  view  of  passing  out  at  the 
Strait  of  Sunda,  come  through  the  Caspar  Strait. 
I  resolved  now  to  steam  in  the  direction  of  this 
latter  strait,  and  forestall  such  as  might  happen 
to  be  on  their  way.  By  daylight  we  had  steamed 
the  coast  of  Sumatra  and  Java  out  of  sight,  and 
soon  afterward  we  made  the  little  island  called  the 
North  Watcher,  looking,  indeed,  as  its  name  implied, 
like  a  lone  sentinel  posted  on  the  wayside.  We  had 
lost  the  beautiful  blue  waters  of  the  Indian  Ocean, 
with  Its  almost  unfathomable  depths  and  entered 
upon  a  sea  whose  waters  were  of  a  whitish  green, 
with  an  average  depth  of  no  more  than  about  twenty 
fathoms.  Finding  that  I  should  be  up  with  Caspar 
Strait  sometime  during  the  night,  If  I  continued 
under  steam,  and  preferring  to  delay  my  arrival 
until  daylight  the  next  morning,  I  let  my  steam  go 


The  Captain  and  His  Fleet  217 

down,  and  put  my  ship  under  sail,  to  take  it  more 
leisurely. 

"We  were  about  to  lift  the  propeller  out  of  the 
water,  when  the  cry  of  'sail  ho'  came  from  the 
vigilant  look-out  at  the  mast-head.  We  at  once 
discontinued  the  operation,  not  knowing  but  we 
might  have  occasion  to  use  steam.  As  the  stranger 
was  standing  in  our  direction,  we  soon  raised  her 
from  the  deck,  and  as  my  glass  developed,  first  one, 
and  then  another  of  her  features,  it  was  evident  that 
here  was  another  clippership  at  hand.  She  had  the 
well-known  tall,  raking  masts,  square  yards,  and 
white  canvas.  She  was  on  a  wind,  with  everything 
set,  from  courses  to  skysails,  and  was  ploughing  her 
way  through  the  gently  ruffled  sea,  with  the  rapidity, 
and  at  the  same  time,  the  grace  of  a  swan.  We 
made  her  a  point  or  two  on  our  lee  bow,  and  not 
to  excite  her  suspicion  we  kept  away  for  her,  so 
gradually,  that  she  could  scarcely  perceive  the  al- 
teration in  our  course.  We  hoisted  at  the  same 
time  the  United  States  colors.  When  we  were 
within  about  four  miles  of  the  chase,  she  responded 
by  showing  us  the  same  colors.  Feeling  now  quite 
sure  of  her,  we  fired  a  gun,  hauled  down  the  enemy's, 
and  threw  our  own  to  the  breeze.  (We  were  now 
wearing  that  splendid  white  flag,  with  its  cross  and 
stars,  which  was  so  great  an  improvement  upon 
the  old  one.)  So  far  from  obeying  the  command 
of  our  gun,  the  gallant  ship  kept  off  a  point  or  two — 
probably  her  best  point   of   sailing — gave   herself 


2i8         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

topgallant  and  topmast  studding-sail,  and  away  she 
went ! 

"I  had  been  a  little  premature  in  my  eagerness 
to  clutch  so  beautiful  a  prize.  She  was  not  as  yet 
under  my  guns,  and  it  was  soon  evident  that  she 
would  give  me  trouble  before  I  could  overhaul  her. 
The  breeze  was  tolerably  fresh,  but  not  stiff.  We 
made  sail  at  once  in  chase.  Our  steam  had  been 
permitted  to  go  down,  as  the  reader  has  seen;  and 
as  yet  we  had  not  much  more  than  enough  to  turn 
the  propeller.  The  chase  was  evidently  gaining  on 
us.  It  was  some  fifteen  or  twenty  minutes  before 
the  engineer  had  a  head  of  steam  on.  We  now 
gave  the  ship  all  steam,  and  trimmed  the  sails  to 
the  best  possible  advantage.  Still  the  fugitive  ship 
retained  her  distance  from  us,  if  she  didn't  increase 
it.  It  was  the  first  time  the  Alabama  had  appeared 
dull.  She  was  under  both  sail  and  steam,  and  yet 
here  was  a  ship  threatening  to  run  away  from  her. 
She  must  surely  be  out  of  trim.  I  tried,  therefore, 
the  effect  of  getting  my  crew  aft  on  the  quarter- 
deck, and  shifting  aft  some  of  the  forward  guns. 
This  helped  us  visibly,  and  the  ship  sprang  forward 
with  increased  speed.  We  were  now  at  least  hold- 
ing our  own,  but  it  was  impossible  to  say,  as  yet, 
whether  we  were  gaining  an  inch.  If  the  breeze 
had  freshened,  the  chase  would  have  run  from 
us  beyond  all  question.  I  watched  the  signs  of  the 
weather  anxiously.  It  was  between  nine  and  ten 
o'clock  A.  M.    Fortunately,  as  the  sun  gained  power, 


The  Captain  and  His  Fleet  219 

and  drove  away  the  mists  of  the  morning,  the  breeze 
began  to  decline !  Now  came  the  triumph  of  steam. 
When  we  had  come  within  long  range,  I  threw  the 
spray  over  the  quarter-deck  of  the  chase,  with  a 
rifle-shot  from  my  bow-chaser.  Still  she  kept  on, 
and  it  was  not  until  all  hope  was  evidently  lost,  that 
the  proud  clipper-ship,  which  had  been  beaten  by 
the  failure  of  the  wind,  rather  than  the  speed  of 
the  Alabama,  shortened  sail  and  hove  to. 

"When  the  captain  was  brought  on  board,  I  con- 
gratulated him  on  the  skilful  handling  of  his  ship, 
and  expressed  my  admiration  of  her  fine  qualities. 
He  told  me  that  she  was  one  of  the  most  famous 
clipper-ships  out  of  New  York.  She  was  the  Con- 
test, from  Yokohama,  in  Japan,  bound  to  New  York. 
She  was  light,  and  in  fine  sailing  trim,  having  only 
a  partial  cargo  on  board.  There  being  no  attempt 
to  cover  the  cargo,  consisting  mostly  of  light  Jap- 
anese goods,  lacker-ware,  and  curiosities,  I  con- 
demned both  ship  and  cargo.  I  was  sorry  to  be 
obliged  to  burn  this  beautiful  ship,  and  regretted 
much  that  I  had  not  an  armament  for  her,  that  I 
might  commission  her  as  a  cruiser.  Both  ships  now 
anchored  in  an  open  sea,  with  no  land  visible,  in 
fourteen  fathoms  of  water,  whilst  the  crew  was 
being  removed  from  the  prize,  and  the  necessary 
preparations  made  for  burning.  It  was  after  night- 
fall before  these  were  all  completed,  and  the  torch 
applied.  We  hove  up  our  anchor,  and  made  sail 
by  the  light  of  the  burning  ship.    Having  now  burned 


220         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Pahner 

a  ship  off  Caspar  Strait,  I  turned  my  ship's  head 
to  the  eastward,  with  the  intention  of  taking  the 
Carimata  Strait." 

Semmes  valued  the  prize  at  $122,815.  The 
American  claim  before  the  Geneva  Board  of  x\rbi- 
tration  (Vol.  Ill  of  the  Reports,  p.  348)  was 
$158,465.97.  In  May,  1876,  A.  A.  Low,  as  at- 
torney for  the  owners,  collected  $66,994.96,  "being 
the  amount  due"  from  the  sum  awarded  to  the 
United  States  for  the  Alabama  claims,  so-called. 
From  this  sum  commissions  and  attorney's  fees  were 
deducted  so  that  the  owners  actually  received  only 
$47,465.75,  of  which  Captain  Palmer's  share  was 
$5,933.22.  He  was  the  owner  of  four  shares — 
thirty-seconds.  The  Contest  cost  $95,000  and  was 
the  most  expensive  clipper  that  Captain  Palmer  had 
built.  She  was  nevertheless  a  highly  profitable  ship 
during  her  twelve  years  afloat.  Her  first  cargo 
(May,  1 851)  yielded  $48,000  freight. 

Of  the  David  Brown,  the  largest  of  Captain 
Palmer's  designs  (1,715  tons),  it  may  be  noted  that 
she  made  the  New  York-San  Francisco  run  during 
1854,  in  98  days.  Two  years  later  she  made  it  in 
103  days.  In  Clark's  list  of  twenty-six  clippers  that 
completed  this  run  in  less  than  no  days  the  David 
Brown  stands  fifth,  the  Sea  Witch  seventh,  the 
Contest  eighth.  The  Comet,  with  the  record  of  76 
days  for  the  eastward  run  stands  twenty-first  in  this 
list. 


The  Captain  and  His  Fleet  221 

In  order  to  give  an  idea  of  the  speed  of  the  really 
short  passages  among  the  average  of  the  whole 
American  fleet  engaged  in  the  trade,  it  should  be 
noted  that  (Hunt's  Merchants'  Magazine^  Vol.  28, 
p.  623),  only  twelve  vessels  out  of  161  made  the 
passage  from  the  East  to  San  Francisco  in  less  than 
no  days  during  1852.  Among  these  only  two  were 
at  sea  less  than  100  days.  The  Sword  Fish  required 
92  days  and  the  Flying  Fish,  98.  On  the  other  hand, 
by  way  of  contrast,  twelve  vessels  required  more 
than  200  days,  among  which  the  Alesto,  from  Bos- 
ton, was  on  the  way  295  days,  and  the  John  Jay, 
from  New  York,  270.  The  average  of  all  arrivals, 
month  by  month,  varied  from  137.5  <^^ys  i"  April 
to  161  days  in  November.  As  the  total  number 
of  arrivals  reported  was  161,  only  a  little  more  than 
7%  of  the  vessels  covered  the  route  in  less  than  no 
days  while  only  1.2%  arrived  in  less  than  100  days. 


CHAPTER  XIX 

GOOD  QUALITIES  OF  THE   CLIPPERS   CONSIDERED 

THAT  the  swift  passages  of  the  ship  Natchez 
should  have  been  included  in  all  magazine 
stories  of  the  Yankee  clippers  is  one  of  the 
more  interesting  facts  in  the  history  of  the  clipper 
era;  for  the  Natchez  was  in  all  respects  a  type 
the  very  reverse  of  the  clippers.  But  of  all  the 
stories  ever  written  about  the  ships  of  the  deep 
blue  sea  the  one  that  should  be  of  most  interest  to 
naval  architects  is  that  which  tells  how  Captain 
"Bob"  Waterman  drove  the  Natchez  from  New 
York  to  Canton  and  back  at  the  very  beginning  of  the 
clipper  era.  Indeed,  the  story,  being  brief,  might 
well  be  printed  in  bold  type  on  cardboard  and  hung 
on  the  wall  of  every  school  room  used  for  instruct- 
ing youths  who  would  learn  to  design  ships. 

The  Natchez  was  built  in  1831  by  Isaac  Webb, 
for  the  Collins-New  York  and  New  Orleans  packet 
line.  In  those  days  the  water  in  the  passes  of  the 
Mississippi  was  always  shallow  and  every  vessel 
trading  regularly  to  New  Orleans  was  built  with  a 
broad  beam  and  relatively  little  depth.  Because  no 
such  a  model  was  supposed  to  be  speedy,  the  hulls 
were  designed  to  carry  the  utmost  amount  of  cargo 

222 


Good  Qualities  of  the  Clippers  Considered     223 

possible,  and  that  is  to  say  the  ends  were  as  blunt 
as  any  afloat;  for  cotton  was  the  most  important 
item  in  the  cargo  and  the  hold  of  the  ship  was 
crammed  full  of  it,  the  final  bales  in  each  tier  being 
forced  in  with  big  screws. 

In  short,  the  Natchez  had  a  model  comparable 
with  that  of  an  Erie  canal  boat.  One  writer,  speak- 
ing of  her  as  she  appeared  in  1843,  called  her  an 
"old  flat-floored  cotton  wagon."  Note  that  she  was 
especially  old,  for  the  best  of  ships  were  reduced 
in  grade  for  insurance  purposes  at  the  age  of  ten, 
and  the  Natchez  was  then  twelve  years  old. 

However,  in  1843  Howland  &  Aspinwall  took 
over  the  Natchez,  placed  her  under  the  command  of 
Captain  Robert  H.  Waterman  and  sent  her  to  Can- 
ton for  tea.  Captain  Bob,  as  he  was  called  by  a 
great  host  of  friends,  had  made  a  splendid  reputa- 
tion as  a  mate  in  the  Black  Ball  packet  line.  He 
was  now  to  have  a  remarkable  career  in  the  China 
trade.  Taking  the  Natchez  to  Canton  he  loaded 
tea  and  brought  it  home  in  a  passage  of  94  days, 
a  length  of  time  which  was  exactly  equaled,  but 
never  excelled  by  the  celebrated  clipper  Flying 
Cloud. 

In  1844,  Captain  Waterman  took  the  Natchez 
by  way  of  the  west  coast  of  South  America  to 
Hong  Kong,  where  he  arrived  in  the  short  time 
of  133  days  of  sailing.  He  then  took  on  tea,  and 
on  January  15,  1845,  01*  about  the  day  when  the 
clipper  Rainbow  was  launched,  he  sailed  for  New 


224         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

York.  He  was  off  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  In  39 
days  and  on  April  3,  just  78  days  from  Canton,  he 
arrived  In  New  York. 

"This  whole  passage,"  says  Clark,  "was  most  re- 
markable, as  the  Natchez  had  established  the  reputa- 
tion of  being  an  uncommonly  slow  ship." 

It  Is  Intimated  In  some  of  the  magazine  stories, 
as  said,  that  Howland  &  Asplnwall  built  their  second 
China  clipper,  the  Sea  JVitch,  because  of  the  ad- 
mirable work  of  their  first  clipper,  the  Rainbow. 
The  truth  Is  they  built  the  Sea  JVitch  because  of  the 
marvelous  work  of  Captain  Waterman  with  the 
Natchez;  but  they  built  her  to  the  plans  of  Griffiths 
because  of  the  success  of  the  Rainbow.  In  fact,  when 
the  sail  plan  of  the  Sea  JVitch  was  drawn  Griffiths 
consulted  frequently  with  Captain  Waterman.  When 
building  the  Sea  JVitch  her  owners  argued  that  if 
Captain  Waterman  could  bring  the  "old  flat-floored 
cotton  wagon"  home  In  78  days  he  could  lower  that 
record  by  something  memorable  with  the  new  Grif- 
fiths clipper. 

And  so  he  did  by  something  most  memorable — 
eventually.  The  Sea  Witch  sailed  on  her  first  voyage 
to  China  on  December  23,  1846,  and  arrived  at 
Hong  Kong  In  104  days,  or  twenty  more  than  was 
required  by  the  Houqua  in  her  first  voyage.  She 
sailed  from  Canton  for  New  York  on  July  25,  1847, 
and  arrived  In  81  days,  or  three  more  than  had  been 
required  by  the  "old,  flat-floored  cotton  wagon." 

However,  a  day  of  glory  was  to  come  with  the 


Good  Qualities  of  the  Clippers  Considered     225 

second  voyage.  The  Sea  Witch  made  the  run  out 
to  Hong  Kong  In  105  days  and  then,  on  November 
7,  1847,  sailed  for  New  York  on  a  passage  never 
equaled  either  before  or  since.  She  was  expected 
to  lower  the  record  of  the  Natchez  to  a  memorable 
extent,  and  as  said  she  did.  She  arrived  in  New 
York  in  77  days.  She  lowered  the  record  of  the 
"old  cotton  wagon,"  in  a  race  14,000  miles  long, 
by  just  one  day.  In  two  subsequent  voyages  she 
came  home  in  79  and  81  days  respectively.  She 
was  thus  unable  to  equal  the  record  of  the  Natchez 
on  these  runs. 

Of  course  all  four  of  her  passages  were  marvelous 
examples  of  speed  but  in  view  of  the  Natchezes 
"well-earned  reputation  of  being  an  uncommonly 
slow  ship"  is  it  unfair  to  suggest  that  the  ability  of 
Captain  Waterman  had  quite  as  much  to  do  with  the 
speed  record  of  the  Sea  Witch  as  did  her  model? 
Moreover,  since  the  Rainbow  never  equaled  the 
record  of  the  Natchez,  is  it  not  manifest  that  the 
model  of  the  Rainbow  and  the  Sea  Witch  had  much 
less  influence  upon  the  development  of  the  clippers 
than  modern  writers  have  been  disposed  to  assert? 

Because  the  record  of  the  Natchez  has  never  been 
equaled  by  any  other  Canton  trader  than  the  Sea 
Witch,  and  because  it  was  surpassed  by  the  run  of 
this  extremely  sharp  ship  by  only  one  day,  the  in- 
fluence of  the  shape  of  a  hull  upon  speed  may  well 
have  consideration  here.  What  shape  of  hull  is 
best  adapted  for  speedy  passages  between  ports  that 


226         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

are  far  apart?  Griffiths's  whole  theory  of  shape 
was  expressed  in  his  description  of  the  Lightning 
{Nautical  Magazine,  Vol.  II,  p.  9),  already  quoted. 

"Very  great  stability;  acute  extremities;  full, 
short  midship  body;  comparatively  small  deadrise, 
and  the  longest  end  forward,  are  points  in  the  ex- 
cellence of  this  ship." 

By  acute  extremities  he  meant  the  use  of  hollow 
water  lines  and  his  expression  "the  longest  end  for- 
ward" indicated  that  the  greatest  breadth  of  beam 
was  placed  abaft  the  midlength  section. 

Were  the  hollow  water  lines  as  advantageous  as 
Griffiths,  Steers  and  McKay  supposed  they  were? 
Evidently  McKay  came  to  have  doubt  in  the  matter 
because  he  gave  the  Lightning  very  deep  hollows, 
but  the  bows  of  the  Great  Republic,  the  pride  of 
his  life,  "were  wedge  like,  being  slightly  concave 
below  water  and  convex  above,  with  much  sameness 
in  shape,"  to  quote  the  description  written  by 
Griffiths  in  the  Nautical  Magazine. 

More  important  than  the  views  of  McKay  in  this 
matter,  however,  is  the  modern  practice  In  modeling 
hulls  for  speed  only.  The  yacht  America  had  hollow 
waterlines,  but  the  modern  defenders  of  her  famous 
cup,  beginning  with  the  Vigilant,  have  all  had  what 
has  been  called  spoon-shaped  bows.  The  hollow 
waterline  was  abandoned  as  a  detriment  to  speed. 

As  to  the  location  of  the  greatest  breadth  of 


Good  Qualities  of  the  Clippers  Considered     227 

beam — whether  forward  or  abaft  the  midlength  sec- 
tion— an  inspection  of  the  records  of  the  swiftest 
American  ships  shows  that  some  "with  the  longest 
end  forward,"  like  the  Lightning,  have  been  ex- 
ceedingly swift  and  some  like  the  Liverpool  packet 
Dreadnought,  have  had  "the  longest  end"  aft.  The 
Dreadnoughts  widest  section  was  three  feet  for- 
ward of  the  beam;  the  Lightning^ s  eight  feet  abaft. 

This  Is  not  to  argue  that  one  model  Is  as  good 
as  another.  What  we  need  to  learn  Is  the  features 
of  the  clippers  which  gave  them  great  speed,  and 
but  little  inquiry  Is  needed  to  show  that  the  relative 
dimensions  were  of  much  more  importance  than  any 
peculiarity  of  shape. 

An  examination  of  the  Palmer  hulls  Is  interesting 
in  connection  with  this  discussion.  The  Houqua 
was  132  feet  long  by  32  wide  and  17  deep.  She 
was  a  little  more  than  four  times  as  long  as  she 
was  broad.  The  Oriental  was  185  feet  long  by  36 
broad  and  21  deep.  She  was  therefore  five  times 
as  long  as  she  was  broad.  When  designing  the 
Houqua  the  captain  was  venturing  into  a  new  field 
and  he  was  therefore  conservative  In  his  model.  The 
relation  of  length  to  beam  was  that  found  in  some 
older  cargo  ships.  Later  experience  led  him  to  make 
his  models  relatively  longer. 

An  examination  of  the  known  proportions  of  the 
famous  clippers  shows  that  most  of  them  were 
around  five  times  as  long  as  they  were  broad.  Some 
were  longer.    The  Flying  Cloud  and  the  Lightning 


2  28         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

were  about  five  and  a  half  times  as  long  as  they 
were  broad,  the  Sovereign  of  the  Seas  was  nearly 
six  times,  and  the  Great  Republic  was  more  than 
six  times  as  long  as  she  was  broad.  The  Sea  TVitch^ 
the  Oriental,  the  Lightning,  were  swift  because,  first 
of  all,  their  dimensions  were  well  proportioned. 

In  this  feature  the  clipper  models  were  a  distinct 
departure  from  previous  models.  Dana's  "Seaman's 
Friend"  describes  the  Damascus  built  at  Boston  in 
1839.  She  was  4.6  times  as  long  as  she  was  broad. 
The  Rajah  was  of  about  the  same  proportions.  Two 
British  men-o'-war  described  were  still  wider.  One 
was  but  3.2  times  as  long  as  she  was  broad  and  the 
other   3.13. 

A  relatively  long  hull  enabled  the  designer  to  give 
his  model  long  wedges  at  the  bow  and  stern,  and 
every  backwoodsman  knows  that  a  long  wedge  is 
easier  to  drive  than  a  short  one. 

It  may  be  noted  that  the  Houqua  was  relatively 
shallow;  she  was  a  "skimming  dish!"  Her  speed 
was  due  to  this  feature,  one  may  suppose,  for  a  shoal 
depth  makes  for  speed,  as  the  America's  cup  races 
have  proved. 

Undoubtedly  the  most  important  feature  of  the 
clipper  was  her  sail  plan.  The  masts  and  yards  were 
relatively  enormous.  Large  sails  meant  great 
power,  but  it  was  not  alone  in  spreading  much  can- 
vas to  storm  winds  that  the  clippers  exceeded  all 
other  ships.  For  the  lofty  spreads  of  light  canvas 
— skysails  and  royal  studdingsails — caught  many  a 


Good  Qualities  of  the  Clippers  Considered     229 

vagrant  breeze  and  carried  the  clippers  swiftly  across 
the  doldrums  between  trade-winds  areas  when  the 
ordinary  ships  lay  rolling  idly  for  weeks  at  a  stretch. 

The  Damascus,  mentioned  above,  was  32  feet 
wide.  Her  main  yard  was  60  feet  long — less  than 
twice  her  width.  The  Stacji  Hound  was  40  feet  wide 
and  carried  a  main  yard  86  feet  long.  The  Great 
Republic  was  53  feet  wide  and  was  originally  pro- 
vided with  a  main  yard  120  feet  long. 

Furthermore  the  clippers  carried  sails  which  were 
proportioned  to  the  masts  in  such  a  way  as  to  give 
a  balance;  with  all  plain  sail  set  the  ship  would 
"steer  herself,"  as  the  sailors  used  to  say.  It  was 
because  the  canvas  on  the  TV.  B.  Palmer  was  per- 
fectly balanced,  fore  and  aft,  that  Captain  Low  was 
able  to  take  her  to  her  wharf  at  San  Francisco  under 
canvas  when  the  pilot  refused  to  do  so. 

Perhaps  the  feature  of  Captain  Palmer's  clippers 
which  made  the  strongest  appeal  to  the  owners  of 
the  day  was  their  strength.  When  designing  a  ship 
for  speed  the  size  of  the  timbers  used  in  the  framing 
had  to  be  adjusted  to  suit  the  strains  on  the  hull. 
The  rock  maple  keel,  the  white-oak  ribs  and  the 
long-leaf  pine  beams,  were  all  heavy  and  expensive. 
The  builders  were  tempted  to  scamp  the  size  of  all 
these  timbers  in  order  to  save  both  weight  and 
money,  and  many  yielded  to  the  temptation.  Hav- 
ing been  built  with  scamped  timbers  some  ships  de- 
signed as  clippers  were  hogged — their  backs  were 
broken — when  they  were  launched.     The  hulls  of 


230         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

others  were  drawn  out  of  shape  by  the  pressure  of 
the  waves  when  they  were  driven  hard  against  a 
gale.  The  tremendous  pressure  of  the  masts  on  the 
keel,  when  a  ship  was  straining  under  a  press  of 
canvas,  sometimes  drove  the  keel  down  until  the 
garboard  strake  seams  were  opened,  creating  leaks 
which  spoiled  the  cargo  and  even  sank  the  ship.  The 
pull  of  the  shrouds  sometimes  drew  the  bolts  which 
held  the  lower  fittings  of  the  shrouds  to  the  sides 
of  the  hull  and  sometimes  opened  the  seams  on  the 
sides.  The  same  strain  frequently  wrecked  the  too- 
slender  masts  and  yards. 

The  experience  of  the  Houqua  during  a  cyclone 
which  overtook  her  on  the  Indian  Ocean,  soon  after 
midnight  on  January  i6,  1848,  shows  at  least  that 
she  was  built  to  endure  the  worst.  The  wind  was 
so  powerful  that  within  seven  hours  after  it  came, 
all  furled  as  well  as  all  reefed  sails  had  been  blown 
in  small  bits  from  the  yards  and  spanker  boom.  Not 
a  rag  was  left.  The  pressure  of  the  wind  on  the  bare 
jibboom  not  only  broke  that  spar  off  in  the  bowsprit 
cap,  but  It  carried  away  the  weather  cathead  to  which 
the  jib  and  flying  jib  guys  were  set  up.  All  three 
topgallant  masts  followed.  At  9  In  the  forenoon 
the  ship  entered  the  quiet  area  In  the  centre  of  the 
cyclone  and  the  crew  cleared  away  the  wreckage 
aloft.  But  at  noon  the  wind  came  again  with  such 
force  that  It  was  impossible  to  stand  up  on  deck  and 
all  hands  gathered  at  the  main  rigging  save  only 


Good  Qualities  of  the  Clippers  Considered     231 

the  man  who  was  at  the  wheel.  The  barometer 
stood  at  27.5. 

At  4  P.  M.  the  crew  saw  an  almost  solid  mass  of 
spoondrift  coming  with  the  wind.  It  was  about  30 
feet  high,  and  when  it  struck  the  ship  it  formed, 
for  a  moment,  an  arch  over  the  deck  beneath  which 
the  mainmast  was  visible  though  the  top  was  in- 
visible. With  that  the  Houqua  turned  over  until 
her  tops  were  in  the  water  alee  and  the  deck  was 
perpendicular. 

Captain  Low,  who  was  in  command,  fell  into  the 
sea,  but  he  caught  a  flying  rope  and  climbed  up  to 
the  main  pin  rail.  There,  by  motions,  he  directed 
the  crew  to  cut  away  the  main  rigging  while  the  man 
from  the  wheel,  who  had  escaped  to  the  mizzen  rig- 
ging, cut  the  shroud  lanyards  there.  The  masts  at 
once  went  overboard  and  the  ship  righted.  Mean- 
time, of  course,  the  deck  had  been  swept  clean  and 
so  much  water  had  poured  down  the  cabin  and  the 
forecastle  scuttles  that  the  hull  was  half  full. 

But  when  the  wind  had  moderated  and  the  crew 
had  pumped  the  water  out  they  found  the  hull  as 
tight  and  sound  as  ever,  and  she  sailed  3>500  miles 
under  a  jury  rig  to  Hong  Kong.  It  was  after  this 
tremendous  strain  that  she  made  her  record  pas- 
sage from  Shanghai  to  New  York. 

The  final  test  of  a  design  for  speed  was  in  the 
ability  of  the  ship  to  endure  all  strains  in  a  storm 
wind. 


232         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

Perhaps  the  influence  of  size  upon  speed  has  not 
been  sufficiently  considered  in  the  clipper  records. 
All  yacht  clubs  have  rules  under  which  the  large 
yachts  give  time  allowances  to  small  ones,  but  even 
with  the  best  of  these  rules  the  large  yacht  has  yet 
an  advantage.  A  race  between  a  seventy-foot  chal- 
lenger for  the  America's  cup  and  a  ninety-foot 
defender  is  simply  unthinkable.  But  the  record  of 
the  Samuel  Russell,  of  940  tons,  is  compared  with 
that  of  the  Sovereign  of  the  Seas,  measuring  2,421 
tons. 

Confessedly  when  the  peculiarities  of  the  clippers 
are  considered  in  the  light  of  present-day  knowledge 
it  is  manifest  that  naval  architecture  was  not  then 
an  exact  science,  and  it  is  not  an  exact  science  even 
now.  Naval  architects  make  calculations  and  draw 
plans  for  each  ship.  Then  they  build  a  six-foot 
model  which  they  tow  to  and  fro  in  a  big  tank  built 
for  the  purpose,  and  measure  the  strain  on  the  tow 
line  with  care.  Next  they  begin  to  scrape  away  the 
underwater  body  of  the  model,  here  and  there,  to 
learn  what  alteration  of  shape  is  needed  to  reduce 
the  strain — to  increase  the  speed,  in  other  words. 
We  are  yet  designing  ships  by  the  rule-o'-thumb. 

If  the  records  of  the  Palmer  clippers  are  consid- 
ered all  together  it  appears  that  each  led  to  the 
building  of  another  because  all  were  profitable;  and 
all  became  noted,  not  through  the  use  of  any  one 
peculiar  feature  of  build  or  outfit,  but  as  a  result 
of  continuous  good  work.    Every  passage  was  made 


Good  Qualities  of  the  Clippers  Considered     233 

at  a  satisfactory  speed  and  the  cargoes  were  de- 
livered in  good  order.  So  long  as  they  were  in 
service  it  was  said  of  them  all,  except  the  Houqua, 
that  they  "did  not  cost  the  underwriters  a  cent." 

The  all-around  efficiency  of  these  ships  should  be 
emphasized  in  any  story  of  the  clipper  era,  because 
something  more  than  a  swift  passage  or  two  was 
needed  to  induce  the  ship  merchants  everywhere 
alongshore  to  undertake  the  building  of  "fast  ves- 
sels for  foreign  trade,"  to  use  Griffiths's  words. 
Something  more  was  needed,  that  is  to  say,  to  de- 
velop the  "clipper  era."  Donald  McKay  did  not 
get  his  order  to  build  the  Stag  Hound  (the  first  clip- 
per built  in  Boston)  until  1850 — until  four  years 
after  the  Rainbow  had  made  her  second  voyage  to 
Canton,  and  two  years  after  the  Sea  Witch,  "the 
swiftest  clipper  of  her  day,"  had  broken  the  record 
of  the  "old  cotton  wagon,"  Natchez.  Boston  mer- 
chants knew  all  about  these  records,  but  they  had 
not  been  convinced  by  the  short  passages  that  sharp- 
built  ships  were  more  desirable  than  others.  Before 
they  would  order  clippers  it  was  necessary  to  show 
them  that  the  sharp-built  ships  had  records  for  mak- 
ing more  money  than  the  ships  they  already  owned. 
The  Palmer  ships,  built  for  the  conservative  firm 
of  A.  A.  Low  &  Brothers,  were  furnishing  just  such 
records.  They  were  the  most  profitable  ships  in 
the  China  trade — that  is,  they  yielded  the  highest 
per  cent  of  profit — though  the  Griffiths  ships  were 
only  a  little  behind  them;  and  it  was  just  when  these 


234         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

profits  became  fully  known  alongshore  that  the  ex- 
traordinary demand  for  swift  ships,  to  carry  cargo 
to  California  at  $1.50  per  cubic  foot  of  space,  arose. 
The  Boston  merchants  did  not  order  clippers  for 
fear  of  losing  their  tea  trade,  nor  to  pose  as  the 
owners  of  the  swiftest  ships  in  the  China  trade,  but 
to  get  a  share  of  a  transportation  business  wherein 
the  freight  rate  was  $60  per  measured  ton.  They 
did  not  intend  "to  enter  the  lists  with  Messrs.  Aspin- 
wall,  Captain  N.  B.  Palmer,  and  others,  and  dispute 
for  the  palm  of  speed."  They  did  not  build  as  a 
sporting  proposition  even  though  thousands  of  dol- 
lars were  wagered  on  the  flyers  when  racing  from 
port  to  port.  The  clipper  era  was  developed  by 
men  who  were  animated  solely  by  the  motive  now 
so  often  stigmatized  as  greed. 

Working  as  contemporaries  but  not  as  rivals. 
Captain  Palmer  and  John  Willis  Griffiths  developed 
two  styles  of  sharp-built  ships,  both  of  which  were 
great  money  makers.  The  era  of  the  clipper  was 
originated  when  Palmer  and  Griffiths  built  the 
Houqiia  and  the  Rainbow.  The  climax  was  reached 
when  the  ships  of  Donald  McKay  and  of  Captain 
Palmer  were  earning  gross  sums  in  single  passages 
equal  to  and  commonly  exceeding  the  original  costs 
of  the  vessels.  The  business  depression,  which  fol- 
lowed the  California  inflation,  reduced  the  freight 
rate  to  $10  per  ton  in  the  New  York-San  Francisco 
trade,  and  bluff  models  were  seen  once  more  in  the 
shipyards. 


Good  Qualities  of  the  Clippers  Considered     235 

Observe,  now,  that  in  his  description  of  the  Stag 
Hound,  previously  quoted,  Griffiths  wrote  as  fol- 
lows: 

"The  construction  of  this  ship  may  be  said  to 
mark  the  introduction  of  the  late  clipper  era  at 
Boston." 

The  era  which  was  begun  by  the  building  of  the 
Houqua  and  the  Rainbow,  1 843-1 845,  was  called 
"the  late  clipper  era"  in  1855 — it  was  then  passing 
away.  Why  it  passed — why  the  splendid  ships 
which  had  outsailed  all  others  and  made  a  reputa- 
tion as  lasting  as  the  history  of  the  sea — failed 
at  last,  shall  be  told  in  another  chapter. 


CHAPTER  XX 

THE  "great  republic"  REBUILT 

AN  interesting  little  side  light  on  the  character 
of  Captain  Palmer  is  found  in  the  list  of 
names  given  to  the  ships  he  designed.  The 
names  Hoiiqua,  Samuel  Russell,  Oriental  and  N.  B. 
Palmer  were  such  as  conservative  merchants  were 
then  in  the  habit  of  giving  ships.  The  Boston  names 
of  the  most  famous  clippers  were  Stag  Hound, 
Flying  Cloud,  Sovereign  of  the  Seas,  Chariot  of 
Fame  and  Great  Republic — a  somewhat  boastful 
list. 

The  last  named  ship  was  the  largest  of  the  clip- 
per fleet,  and  the  largest  ship  of  the  sail  ever  built 
of  wood.  She  is  of  special  interest  here  because, 
through  a  vagary  of  fortune  common  enough  in  the 
annals  of  the  sea,  she  came  into  the  possession  of 
Captain  Palmer. 

To  give  the  story  of  this  ship  the  right  focus  it 
is  necessary  to  recall  first  the  trade  between  eastern 
United  States  ports  and  San  Francisco,  after  the 
discovery  (Jan.  24,  1848)  of  placer  gold  in  Cali- 
fornia. When  the  news  of  this  discovery  was 
officially  confirmed  a  vast  host  of  people  hastened 
with  all  possible  speed  to  the  new  diggings.     The 

236 


The  ''Great  Republic''  Rebuilt  237 

congestion  of  people  at  San  Francisco  raised  the 
prices  of  commodities  to  an  extraordinary  height. 
On  July  I,  1849,  lumber  worth  $12  per  thousand 
In  New  York  sold  for  $500  In  San  Francisco.  Eggs 
sold  for  $2  a  dozen.  Fowls  were  $4  each  and  all 
other  commodity  prices  were  comparable  with  these. 
The  profits  on  a  cargo  of  general  merchandise 
shipped  from  New  York  to  San  Francisco,  at  that 
time,  were  so  great  that  the  demand  for  swift  ships 
of  the  largest  size  exceeded  any  ever  before  known 
In  the  nation.  This  demand  continued  for  several 
years,  and  sea  capitalists  built  for  the  trade  with  all 
speed.  In  1851  a  large  number  of  ships  were 
launched  which  measured  from  1,500  to  1,800  tons, 
or  an  average  of  500  tons  larger  than  the  large  ships 
of  previous  years.  A  year  later  several  ships 
measuring  above  2,000  tons  were  built  with  profit 
for  the  owners,  the  largest  of  these,  the  Sovereign 
of  the  Seas,  measuring  2,421  tons.  This  ship  was 
built  by  Donald  McKay  of  Boston  on  his  own  ac- 
count, because  no  one  was  to  be  found  who  would 
invest  in  a  vessel  as  large  as  she  was.  McKay's 
friends  seriously  warned  him  that  bankruptcy  would 
follow,  but  when  she  was  put  in  commission  she 
proved  to  be  the  most  profitable  ship  of  the  whole 
clipper  fleet  of  the  day. 

It  was  the  success  of  the  Sovereign  of  the  Seas 
along  with  the  prevailing  optimism  in  business 
circles — especially  the  prevailing  optimism — that 
led,  in  1853,  to  the  building  of  the  Great  Republic. 


238         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

If  certain  characteristics  of  this  ship  be  consid- 
ered it  is  seen  that  her  name  was  appropriate;  for 
she  was  in  several  respects  like  the  American  nation. 
First  of  all,  she  was  thoroughly  well  framed  and 
put  together.  Her  backbone — the  assemblage  of 
timbers  at  her  keel — was  nine  feet,  ten  inches  deep, 
from  the  top  of  the  riding  keelson  to  the  bottom 
of  the  shoe,  and  the  breadth  of  this  assemblage  was 
commensurate  with  the  depth.  She  had  bilge  keel- 
sons which  were  larger  than  the  keels  of  many  big 
clippers.  The  scarfs  of  the  timbers  were  long,  the 
coags  big  and  numerous,  the  bolts,  whether  of  cop- 
per or  iron,  were  of  unusual  dimensions.  Finally  the 
frames  were  diagonally  cross-braced  with  iron  straps 
four  inches  wide  and  an  inch  thick.  In  her  construc- 
tion she  was  as  far  superior  to  all  sailing  ships  of 
that  day  as  the  fundamentals  of  the  America^ 
nation  were  superior  to  those  of  all  other  nations. 

Then,  while  some  critics,  including  Designer 
Griffiths,  thought  she  lacked  beauty,  they  all  agreed 
that  she  was  built  for  speed  and  carrying  capacity. 
Her  spread  of  canvas  was  in  fact  simply  enormous, 
and  in  proportion  far  beyond  the  usual  spread. 
Thus  her  main  yard  was  120  feet  long  to  a  breadth 
of  hull  of  ^2  feet,  or  14  feet  more  than  the  naval 
rule  allowed  in  making  the  sail  plan  of  swift  frigates. 

Her  bulk  was  especially  comparable  with  that  of 
the  nation.  She  was  325  feet  long  on  the  upper 
deck,  and  that  was  125  feet  longer  than  the  deck  of 
the  clipper  Aurora,  a  vessel  of  the  average  size  in 


The  *'Great  Republic**  Rebuilt  239 

the  trade  during  1854.  She  measured  4,555  tons, 
and  her  capacity  was  6,000  tons.  She  was  of  such 
immense  size  that  neither  owners  nor  agents  could 
fill  her;  and  a  fanciful  writer  has  compared  the  vast 
empty  space  in  her  hull  to  the  wide  vacant  land 
spaces  then  existing  in  the  nation.  There  was  some- 
thing of  the  "spread-eagle"  in  the  attitude  of  her 
designer,  as  there  was  in  the  attitude  of  all  good 
Yankees  in  those  days. 

When  completed  the  Great  Republic  was  brought 
to  New  York  and  partly  loaded  for  Liverpool, 
where  she  was  to  be  put  into  the  trade  to  Australia. 
But  just  before  she  was  ready  to  sail  (December  26, 
1853)  a  fire  which  originated  in  a  nearby  warehouse 
set  her  on  fire  aloft,  for  that  was  the  day  of  tarred 
rigging.  The  firemen  flinched  when  asked  to  save 
her,  her  spars  and  upper  deck  were  destroyed,  and 
she  was  sunk  at  the  pier.  She  was  then  abandoned 
to  the  underwriters  (she  had  been  insured  for 
$400,000),  and  the  underwriters  in  due  course  sold 
her  at  auction,  "as  is  and  where  is."  Captain 
Palmer  bought  her,  as  she  lay  on  the  bottom  beside 
the  pier,  for  A.  A.  Low  &  Brothers.  To  show  his 
standing  with  this  firm  it  may  be  told  that  none  of 
the  members  knew  what  he  was  doing  until  he  went 
to  the  office  and  announced  the  purchase.  Mr.  A. 
A.  Low  at  once  confirmed  the  transaction.  The  cap- 
tain took  a  sixteenth  interest  in  the  hulk. 

Of  course  the  captain  had  bid  her  in  at  a  low 
price.     She  was  raised  and  towed  to  the  shipyard 


240         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

of  Sneeden  &  Whitlock,  Greenpoint,  where  she  was 
rebuilt  as  a  razee,  to  use  the  naval  term.  She  was 
rebuilt,  without  her  original  upper  deck,  at  a  total 
cost  of  $27,000. 

The  original  figurehead,  by  the  way,  was  a  beau- 
tifully-carved head  of  an  eagle,  covered  with  gold 
leaf.  Captain  Palmer  saved  it  and  took  it  to  Ston- 
ington,  where  It  may  now  be  seen  in  the  public 
library.     The  razee  had  no  figurehead. 

In  her  new  form  the  Great  Republic  was  still  much 
larger  than  any  ship  of  the  sail  afloat,  for  she  meas- 
ured 3,355  tons  and  had  a  capacity  of  something 
more  than  4,000  tons. 

Reducing  the  depth  of  hold  was  only  one  of  the 
alterations  made  in  the  Great  Republic.  Thus  the 
new  main  yard  was  only  90  feet  long  as  compared 
with  the  original,  120  feet  long,  a  reduction  of  25%. 
The  masts  were  also  shortened,  of  course.  This 
was  done  to  reduce  the  number  of  men  required. 

A  novelty  in  the  outfit  of  the  big  ship  was  a  steam 
engine  installed  on  deck  and  connected  with  handy 
winches,  fore  and  aft.  American  shipbuilders  had 
led  the  world  theretofore  in  adopting  such  labor- 
saving  devices  as  blocks  with  roller  bearings,  im- 
proved windlasses  and  "patent"  steering  gear,  but 
the  use  of  steam  to  save  human  muscle  was  an 
improvement  in  advance  of  the  day.  The  practical 
result  of  all  the  changes  made  by  Captain  Palmer 
in  this  rebuilt  ship  was  a  reduction  in  the  number  of 
men  required  from  100  to  50. 


The  ''Great  Republic''  Rebuilt  241 

On  February  21,  1855,  Captain  Palmer  sent  the 
Great  Republic  to  sea,  bound  for  London,  with 
3,000  tons  of  guano  in  her  hold  "for  ballast."  She 
ran  to  the  coast  of  England  in  twelve  days,  and 
Admiral  Preble,  in  his  interesting  account  of  this 
vessel,  printed  in  the  United  States  Service  Maga- 
zine, recalls  the  fact  that  she  sailed  412  miles  in  24 
consecutive  hours  while  on  the  way.  If  she  was  able 
to  sail  at  that  speed  under  a  main  yard  90  feet  long, 
what  might  she  have  done  if  equally  well  handled 
under  her  original  main  yard  120  feet  long? 

The  ship  was  consigned  to  the  London  firm  of 
W.  S.  Lindsay  &  Co.,  shipbrokers  and  merchants 
of  the  highest  standing,  the  head  of  the  firm  being 
the  historian  whose  work  has  been  quoted  herein. 
Referring  to  her  (Vol.  Ill,  p.  359),  Lindsay  wrote: 

"She  made  the  passage  to  Scilly  Islands  in  thir- 
teen days,  beating  up  the  channel  thence  in  three 
days  to  the  Downs.  But  on  her  arrival  in  London 
.  .  .  I  found  her  much  too  large  to  be  employed 
profitably  in  any  of  the  ordinary  channels  of  com- 
merce; and  had  not  the  French  Government,  then 
in  want  of  transports  for  the  Crimean  War,  been 
induced  by  the  large  space  she  afforded  for  the  con- 
veyance of  troops,  to  engage  her  for  this  purpose, 
she  must  have  remained,  long  after  her  arrival, 
unemployed." 

Lindsay  &  Co.  wrote  so  discouragingly  about  the 
employment  of  the  big  ship  that  the  owners  sent 


242         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

Captain  Palmer  to  London  to  see  what  he  could  do 
with  her.  Just  how  he  managed  the  business  is  not 
now  a  matter  of  record,  but  the  Nautical  Magazine 
(Vol.  II,  p.  569)  reported  that  the  French  Govern- 
ment had  chartered  her  for  use  as  a  transport  (as 
Lindsay  also  notes),  to  carry  soldiers  and  supplies 
from  French  ports  to  the  Crimea,  where  war  pre- 
vailed. The  price  received  by  the  owners  was 
twenty  shillings  net  per  ton  register  per  month.  For 
his  part  of  the  task  of  securing  this  profitable  char- 
ter the  Lows  gave  Captain  Palmer  $2,500. 

In  1857  the  Great  Republic  was  sent  from  New 
York  to  San  Francisco  with  a  cargo  that  yielded, 
according  to  one  report,  a  freight  of  $160,000.  It 
was  in  her  passage  to  the  west  that  she  made  the 
record  run  between  Sandy  Hook  and  the  Equator — 
16  days.  She  arrived  at  San  Francisco  in  92  days. 
As  was  noted  at  the  time,  she  never  had  the  luck 
to  find  a  driving  gale  that  lasted  for  any  great  length 
of  time.  Lieut.  M.  F.  Maury,  of  the  Washington 
Naval  Observatory,  whose  wind  charts  were  of  such 
great  value  to  seamen,  said  that  if  this  ship  had 
been  able  to  sail  over  a  route  in  the  far  south  where 
the  strong  winds  found  by  the  Sovereign  of  the  Seas 
prevail,  she  would  have  exceeded  all  records,  even 
with  her  reduced  sail  area. 

During  the  Civil  War  she  was  in  the  employ  of 
the  Federal  Government.  In  1869  she  was  sold  in 
Liverpool  and  Clark  notes  that  she  foundered  "off 
Bermuda"  in  1872. 


CHAPTER  XXI 

HAIL    AND    FAREWELL 

AS  designed,  the  Great  Republic  was  the  most 
splendid  wooden  merchant  ship  ever  built, 
even  though  too  large  for  profit  at  that 
period.  That  an  eager  ambition  to  excel — that 
pride  founded  on  previous  achievement  and  buoyant 
optimism — should  have  produced  such  a  ship  was 
natural  and  perhaps  inevitable.  But  if  rightly  seen 
the  result  was  worth  the  cost.  The  patriot's  blood 
is  stirred  as  he  reads  the  description  of  her  huge 
hull,  her  extraordinary  framing,  and,  above  all,  her 
tremendous  spread  of  canvas;  and  he  is  glad  that 
the  enthusiasm  needed  for  the  production  of  a  ship 
like  her  was  found  in  an  American  builder. 

It  is  interesting  to  observe,  too,  that  the  conserva- 
tive Captain  Palmer  had  the  optimism  to  invest  in 
this  last  and  greatest  ship  of  her  class.  He  saw 
clearly  that,  as  designed,  she  was  much  too  large 
for  the  going  cargoes,  for  he  was  careful,  when  re- 
building her,  to  provide  for  a  great  reduction  in 
the  number  of  her  crew.  When  he  substituted  a 
90-foot  main  yard  for  one  that  had  been  120  feet 
long,  he  calculated  that  while  the  ship  would  carry 
almost  as  much  cargo  as  any  two  of  the  ordinary 

243 


244        Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Painter 

clippers  afloat  she  would  require  few  more  men  in 
her  crew  than  one  of  them.  There  was  a  solid 
foundation  for  his  optimism. 

One  can  believe,  too,  that  when  he  was  rebuilding 
her  he  was  animated  by  an  unexpressed  ambition. 
It  would  be  a  notable  achievement  to  make  a  profit- 
able ship  out  of  this  magnificent  monster.  Perhaps, 
too,  as  he  recalled  his  work  in  creating  the  first  of 
the  clippers,  he  dimly  realized  that  the  Great  Re- 
public  was  the  culminant,  the  predominant  ship  of 
the  famous  fleet,  and  that  this  feeling  moved  him  to 
buy  her  at  the  auction.  At  any  rate  he  was,  in  later 
years,  honestly  proud  of  having  been  a  leader 
among  clipper  owners  at  the  end,  as  well  as  at 
the  beginning,  of  the  wonderful  era. 

In  connection  with  the  story  of  the  Great  Republic 
it  is  interesting  to  recall  the  fact  that  the  English 
were  also  building  a  ship,  in  those  days,  which  was 
much  too  large  for  the  available  traffic — the  steam- 
ship Great  Eastern — the  keel  of  which  was  laid  on 
May  I,  1854.  She  and  the  Great  Republic  were 
contemporary  exhibits  of  excessive  optimism,  but  the 
British  ship  occupies  a  position  in  the  history  of  the 
sea  far  different  from  that  of  the  big  clipper.  For 
she  was  a  sporadic  growth  in  the  evolution  of  a  new 
and  more  efficient  type  where  the  American  ship  was 
a  final  specimen  of  a  type  doomed  to  disappear. 

The  fact  that  the  ship  of  the  sail  was  to  be  re- 
placed in  all  trades  by  a  new  type  is  a  matter  of 
especial  interest  here,  because  of  Captain  Palmer^s 


Hail  and  Farewell  245 

connection  with  the  contest  between  the  two  types. 
Accordingly,  a  brief  consideration  of  the  evolution 
of  the  deep-water  steamship  must  be  given.  In 
1838  I.  K.  Brunei,  chief  engineer  of  the  Great  West- 
ern Railroad,  in  England,  sent  the  steamship  Great 
Western  from  Bristol  to  New  York  (April  7-23), 
and  demonstrated  that  a  steamship  could  earn  a 
profit  in  the  transatlantic  trade;  for  this  voyage 
yielded  a  profit  and  the  ship  continued  to  make  profit- 
able voyages  for  years  thereafter  In  spite  of  the 
opposition  of  another  British  line  which  received  a 
substantial  subsidy  for  carrying  the  mails. 

It  Is  Important  to  observe  next  that  the  early 
steamships  were  run  in  opposition  to  our  packets 
and  not  to  our  clippers.  The  clippers  were  in  the 
long-haul  trade  and  made  their  whole  magnificent 
career  after  the  steamships  had  begun  their  contest 
for  supremacy  in  the  North  Atlantic.  The  Houqua 
was  launched  nearly  six  years  after  the  first  voyage 
of  the  Great  Western  steamship  was  made. 

Note  further  that  the  steamships  served  the 
American  packet  ships  precisely  as  the  packets  had 
served  the  preceding  ships — they  provided  a  more 
regular  and  dependable  service.  The  American 
packets  for  a  time  made  contracts  with  shippers  by 
which  they  agreed  to  deliver  cargo  in  Liverpool 
ahead  of  the  steamships,  under  a  penalty  of  a  great 
reduction  In  the  freight  rate,  but  they  could  not 
make  a  similar  contract  for  the  passage  to  New 
York  and  succeed.     The  steamships  could  and  did 


246         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

announce  in  advance  the  days  on  which  they  would 
depart  and  those  on  which  they  would  arrive, 
whether  east  bound  or  west  bound,  and  they  made 
good  the  promise.  So  they  rapidly  secured  the  high- 
class  freights  and  the  passenger  traffic. 

Efficiency  won  the  contest  and  that  is  a  statement 
which  American  ship  owners  need  to  keep  in  mind. 

When  American  ship  owners  saw  the  trend  of  the 
business,  they  sought  to  go  into  steam,  but  they  failed 
for  several  substantial  reasons.  The  British  had 
had  long  experience  in  navigating  the  stormy  waters 
of  Europe  with  steamships.  They  had  a  well- 
developed  iron  business  where  America  had  none. 
The  iron  as  well  as  the  copper  bolts  with  which  the 
famous  Yankee  clippers  were  fastened,  were  im- 
ported; and  when  the  Yankee  built  steamships  he 
imported  much  of  the  iron  work.  Then,  too,  the 
Yankee  was  handicapped  by  the  success  he  had  had 
in  building  inland-water  steamers,  for  he  tried  to 
use  the  kind  of  engines  which  had  succeeded  on  the 
inland  vessel,  but  found  them  unadapted  for  deep 
water. 

Worst  of  all,  the  Yankee  continued  to  use  wood 
for  the  hull  while  the  British  turned  to  iron,  and  he 
used  paddle  wheels  while  the  British  adopted  the 
screw  propeller.  The  critical  period  of  the  contest 
between  American  and  British  shipping  on  the  North 
Atlantic  came  in  1850,  when  a  line  of  iron  packets, 
driven  by  the  screw  propeller,  was  established  be- 
tween Philadelphia  and  Liverpool.    From  the  build- 


Hail  and  Farewell  247 

ing  of  Palmer's  packet  ship  Roscius  to  the  rebuild- 
ing of  the  Great  Republic  there  was  absolutely  no 
development,  or  say,  no  evolution  in  the  ship  of  the 
sail.  But  the  substitution  of  the  screw  for  the 
paddle  wheel,  meantime,  was  a  development  amount- 
ing to  a  revolution;  and  in  the  meantime,  too,  each 
new  steamship  carried  minor  improvements  in  many 
features.  The  art  of  building  ships  of  the  sail  had 
culminated;  the  art  of  building  steamships  was  in  its 
infancy;  and  yet  these  infant-class  steamships  were 
more  efficient  than  any  ship  of  the  sail  in  the  Liver- 
pool trade.  The  clipper  era  came  after  the  superior 
efficiency  of  steam  on  the  North  Atlantic  had  been 
demonstrated;  and  with  the  further  evolution  of 
steam  the  proud  and  beautiful  ship  of  the  sail  was 
speedily  driven  from  all  trades. 

The  attitude  of  American  ship  designers  and 
capitalists,  among  whom  Captain  Palmer  was  a 
leader,  is  very  well  set  forth  in  the  periodicals  of 
the  day.  In  the  Nautical  Magazine  of  August, 
1857,  the  editor  considered  the  question,  'Which  is 
the  Best  Material  for  Ship  Building — Wood  or 
Iron?"    Rewrote: 

"Those  who  have  tested  both  wood  and  Iron  know 
wood  to  be  the  best.  .  .  .  The  English  shipbuilding 
iron  Is  unfit  for  building  vessels.  We  know  this  from 
personal  experience.  ...  In  reference  to  the  se- 
curity of  the  shaft  In  the  sternpost,  we  do  not  hesi- 
tate to  say  .  .   .  that  we  can  furnish  greater  security 


248         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

...  in    a    wooden    vessel    than    our    transatlantic 
friends  can  in  an  iron  vessel  as  now  built." 

In  the  editor's  view  the  current  talk  about  the 
superiority  of  iron  was  heard  only  because  "English 
influence  is  endeavoring  to  destroy  the  value  of  our 
forests  and  to  increase  the  value  of  her  mines." 

In  "A  Cyclopedia  of  Commerce,"  issued  by 
Harper  &  Brother  in  1858,  is  the  following  on  page 
1706: 

"It  is  probable  that  in  the  end"  the  steamships 
"will  engross  the  greater  part  of  the  coasting  trade 
of  most  countries  and  of  the  trade  between  countries 
adjacent  to  each  other.  But  the  improved  class  of 
sailing  ships  have  little  to  fear  from  the  competition 
of  steamers  in  the  more  distant  branches  of  trade." 

In  short,  American  shipping  people  could  not  see 
the  trend  of  sea  transportation. 

Captain  Palmer's  opinion  of  iron  as  a  material  for 
shipbuilding  has  been  preserved  in  a  record  at 
Stonington,  as  follows: 

"When  he  was  in  Liverpool  with  the  Siddons  the 
English  shipbuilders  were  discussing  iron  ships,  and 
Captain  Nat  laughed  at  them.  He  looked  at  the 
iron  plate  and  said  he  could  fire  a  musket  ball 
through  it;  that  with  an  old  gun  he  had  he  could  sink 
any  of  their  iron  ships.  A  wager  was  instantly 
made  that  he  could  not  make  his  words  good.     The 


Hail  and  Farewell  249 

iron  plate  was  put  in   position   and  with   an   old 
musket  he  fired  a  ball  through  it." 

It  was  commonly  believed  in  America  that  iron 
was  unfit  for  shipbuilding  because  it  was  thus  easily 
punctured.  It  was  frequently  said  that  if  any  acci- 
dent happened  to  an  iron  ship  at  sea  she  would  drop 
from  under  the  feet  of  the  crew  while  they  were 
crossing  the  deck  to  the  lifeboats.  The  fact  that 
the  iron  ship  Great  Britain  had  remained  on  the 
rocks  on  the  coast  of  Ireland,  all  one  winter,  and  was 
then  hauled  off  and  fully  repaired  at  small  expense, 
was  ignored. 

The  fact  that  Captain  Palmer  and  others  looked 
on  without  concern  while  the  British  were  develop- 
ing their  iron  shipping  seems,  at  first  thought,  aston- 
ishing and  even  astounding.  But  when  this  apathy 
is  well  considered  it  is  understandable.  It  was  due 
to  the  bent  of  mind  naturally  developed  in  the  sailor 
of  the  sail.  For  the  man  who  had  designed,  built, 
and  launched  such  ships  as  the  Houqua  and  the 
Samitel  Russell,  and  had  then  driven  them  by  fair 
winds  and  through  foul  gales  to  record  achieve- 
ments, could  look  upon  the  slobbering,  crashing, 
stinking  steamship  with  no  other  feeling  than  dis- 
gust. The  sailor  of  the  sail  was  in  his  every  fiber 
and  instinct  an  artist. 

Nevertheless,  Captain  Palmer  did  try  his  hand  at 
it.  He  bought  an  interest  in  one  built  for  the  Black 
Ball  Line  and  took  command  of  her  on  her  first  voy- 


250         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

age.  He  tried  thus  to  adapt  himself  to  the  new 
system  of  transportation,  but  one  trial  was  enough. 
On  his  return  to  New  York  he  left  the  ship  and 
soon  after  retired  from  active  work  at  sea  alto- 
gether. 

With  the  rebuilding  of  the  Great  Republic  the 
story  of  Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer,  in  his 
work  of  giving  American  shipping  a  dominating 
influence  on  all  seas,  comes  to  an  end.  Nevertheless, 
a  few  brief  sketches — pictures — of  his  life  in  retire- 
ment should  prove  of  interest.  He  was  one  of  the 
able  seamen  who  established  the  New  York  Yacht 
Club,  and  while  he  lived  he  was  active  in  promoting 
its  interests.  That  he  had  an  inborn  love  for  sailing 
in  small  boats  as  well  as  merchant  ships  was  shown 
during  his  second  voyage  to  Canton  in  the  Houqua, 
when  his  wife  and  a  niece  were  with  him.  For  he 
rigged  one  of  the  quarter  boats  with  sails  and  then 
took  his  wife  and  niece,  and  any  guest  that  hap- 
pened to  come  to  the  ship,  for  all-day  exploring 
expeditions  around  the  river,  above  and  below 
Whampoa.  Having  given  the  best  years  of  his 
business  career  to  designing  swift  ships  of  the  sail, 
he  found  no  more  congenial  work  for  his  hours  of 
leisure  than  the  designing,  building  and  sailing  of 
pleasure  ships.  It  is  remembered  that  he  thus  pro- 
duced seventeen  different  yachts.  The  famous 
schooner  yacht  Palmer  was  named  for  him. 

When  sailing  his  yachts,  whether  in  the  races  of 
the  New  York  Yacht  Club  or  in  cruising  along 
shore,  he  always  carried  a  few  of  the  boys  of  Ston- 


Hail  and  Farewell  251 

ington.  Some  who  were  thus  favored  recall  now 
that  he  not  only  taught  them  the  arts  of  handling 
canvas,  but  he  provided  for  them  experiences  which 
cultivated  such  mental  qualities  as  energy,  endurance 
and  persistence. 

Thus,  it  is  related  that  when  he  sailed  from  Ston- 
ington  for  Saybrook,  one  day,  with  such  a  crew  on 
board,  the  wind  sagged  just  as  he  was  entering  the 
river,  and  the  tide  began  to  ebb.  The  yacht  lost 
headway  and  then  began  to  drift.  Thereupon  the 
boys  were  put  in  a  yawl,  with  a  line  to  the  yacht,  in 
order  to  tow  her  in ;  and  they  were  kept  towing  until 
they  succeeded,  although  it  took  them  nearly  all 
night  to  do  it.  They  thought  they  were  "in  hard 
luck"  at  the  time,  but  later  they  were  thankful  for  a 
lesson  in  persistence — as  a  record  shows. 

All  outdoor  sports  appealed  to  the  captain,  and 
he  was  especially  fond  of  shooting.  Having  pro- 
vided his  crew  with  wild  fowl  among  the  islands  on 
the  Antarctic  coast,  he  renewed  his  youth  by  shoot- 
ing coots  on  Long  Island  Sound  and  ducks  and  geese 
on  the  Currituck  Sound.  For  he  was  an  active  mem- 
ber of  the  Currituck  Club,  a  famous  organization  of 
sportsmen  in  his  day. 

Hale  and  hearty,  gentle  and  kindly,  and  with  an 
optimistic  outlook  on  life  which  was  founded  upon 
a  sincere  faith  in  the  Christian  religion  as  taught 
by  the  Episcopal  creed,  he  grew  old  slowly.  Noth- 
ing ever  deeply  marred  his  life  until  he  lost  his  wife 
in  1872,  but  he  died  at  last  of  a  broken  heart.  After 
the   death    of   his   wife   he   became    devoted   to   a 


252         Captain  Nathaniel  Brown  Palmer 

nephew,  who  had  been  named  for  him,  the  son  of 
his  brother  Alexander.  The  boy  became  afflicted 
with  tuberculosis  and  the  captain  made  every  pos- 
sible effort  to  save  him.  He  and  the  boy  traveled 
far  in  search  of  a  climate  where  a  cure  might  be 
effected,  but  all  in  vain. 

The  last  journey  made  was  to  China.  When  it 
was  finally  seen  that  no  hope  remained,  the  two  went 
on  board  the  City  of  Pekin,  an  American  ship,  at 
Hong  Kong,  May  15,  1877,  hoping  to  reach  home 
while  the  boy  was  yet  alive.  Though  78  years  old, 
and  worn  with  travel  and  worry,  the  captain  was 
yet  every  inch  a  Viking  lord  of  the  sea.  Captain 
Tanner,  the  ship's  master,  said  later  that  he  always 
felt  as  if  he  were  a  junior  officer  when  in  the  dom- 
inating presence  of  the  old  clipper  sailor.  But  the 
final  and  breaking  strain  of  life  was  at  hand,  for 
the  boy  died  when  one  day  out  from  port — May  16. 

Throughout  the  voyage  to  San  Francisco,  there- 
after, the  captain  failed  steadily  though  not  visibly, 
for  his  will  sustained  him.  On  reaching  port  he 
wired  the  death  of  the  boy  to  the  father.  Then  he 
went  to  bed  at  his  hotel  and  on  June  21  he  passed 
aw'ay,  unafraid,  to  the  haven  of  all  who  leave  a 
record  of  good  work  well  done. 

On  July  15,  with  his  coffin  buried  under  great 
masses  of  flowers,  his  body  was  carried  by  a  memor- 
able host  of  his  friends  to  the  family  plot  in  the 
cemetery  overlooking  the  sea  at  Stonington,  and 
there  it  rests  awaiting  the  Master^s  call. 


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